


The Temptation Within

by roguelightning



Category: Sanctuary (TV), The Unforgiving - Within Temptation (Album), Within Temptation - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Horror, Thriller, could be taken as a rpf I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 15:53:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 57,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguelightning/pseuds/roguelightning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One is a doctor of monsters, the other is a doctor of souls. Somehow, their paths hadn't crossed until the day a certain Sinead Harkin came back to life. Helen Magnus and Mother Maiden. Two faces of the same coin. A coin that also has a rather sharpened edge.<br/>Can also be taken as a RPF given the fact that it also features Sharon den Adel, but it's not what you'd normally expect from something like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frozen

_It’s always been weird for me to see how the world changes with the passing of the time. Back in my day, women didn’t mean much at all. Men were so busy inventing a new world that they forgot about us, they forgot about how important we were to them. We had to consider ourselves fortunate if we found a nice man until the age of 20. That was all life was to us. We were born, we found a husband, we had children of our own and we rose a new generation of slaves to carry on the legacy. The legacy of the obedient woman who doesn’t see school as an option – why would she, really, when all school meant for her was time lost? Why would she want to attend some classes she didn’t get any recognition for?  
                Had I been an animal, I would have gotten a lot more consideration. Many would have said that it’s one of the noblest things that a lioness can do, to protect her cub. But I wasn’t a lioness. I was just a poor girl who was married to a monster and that one day decided to break free. I’ve tried to justify my actions for over 100 years, to say that I’ve only did it to save my Anna. I kept telling this to myself for so long that I began believing it. But at night, when I had to witness worms crawling along my body, feeding from it, when the only thing I felt was the cold that froze my bones and turned what was left of my blood into ice, the lies didn’t do me any good. I am one of the fallen, and Heaven has forever closed its gates for me. There are moments when I wish I could go to Hell, go anywhere, just to get rid of this uncertainty, of this feeling of not belonging anywhere. But Hell doesn’t want me either. Well, not the classical Hell, because I was forced to see my daughter growing up hating me. She only remembered me as the murderer who killed her father. She never asked herself why she had a broken doll that she kept even if she didn’t know where it came from. She never got the letter I wrote her because my mother hid it from her. And for that, I am grateful. Anna couldn’t remember that night anymore. But she did remember I killed her father, she did remember I sent her to an orphanage through my actions and she died blaming me for all the evil in her life. And I was forced to witness all that. And this is a kind of Hell that I tried to escape with my entire decomposing being. The Hell that saying I did it for you and not believing it is._

* * *

 

 “You harlot! You’re nothing but garbage, just like your mother. Look in my face! I want to see you, to watch every single move you make trying to get away from me.” The screams wake Katherine up. She was barely able to fall asleep that night, because it was one of those days when her whole body ached, when she was scared that she won’t be able to hide the bruises anymore. But all her pain comes back again when she hears her baby screaming. She would have been able to take all the hurt in the world, just to keep her Anna safe. And now the reality of what is happening is so terrifying, so inconceivable that for a second she doesn’t want to believe it. Not her daughter, not her little Anna.

 “Mommy, help me!” her daughter cries and she knows that everything is real. She trembles when she lights the candle and goes down the hallway, to her daughter’s bedroom. Her husband will be so angry if she stops him. But letting him continue… No. She can’t handle that either. So she continues walking, only to find that her husband had locked the door.

 “Daddy, stop, you’re hurting me!” her daughter cries and even from the other side of the door Katherine can hear the sound of a loud slap over her daughter’s face. Pain finally gets the best of her and she kneels in front of the door, screaming her husband’s name as her fists hit the door, begging him to stop.

She doesn’t know how much time has passed- ten minutes, fifteen?- when her husband finally exits her daughter’s bedroom. His smile is so libidinous and disgusting that for a second she’s afraid she would throw up on his feet.

 “John, please tell me you didn’t-“ She tries pleading, hoping that it was all a bad dream and that her daughter is still safe asleep in her little bed. But the only reaction she gets from him is a wide grin that spreads on his face. “You know, she’s better than you. Tighter, at least. Maybe I won’t even be keeping you anymore now that I’ve discovered her.” he says and there is a cruelty in his voice that makes her tremble. She falls to the ground, crying, and the last thing she sees is how her husband leaves, closing his zipper with that insufferable smile on his face.

When she finally gets the courage to get in her daughter’s room, she only needs a look to know her daughter is dead. Sure, she is still breathing, but that little figure that sits on the bed, in the middle of a blood stained sheet, as she is tearing a doll apart, is not her daughter anymore. Katherine tries to shake this feeling, tries to embrace her daughter, but she remains unresponsive. And that’s when she decides what she has to do. After all, it would only seem fair. He killed her daughter and now he has to die.

She doesn’t think too much when she pours the poison into his tea, or when she serves it to him. Lucky her, she doesn’t need too much education to know that dose of poison will kill him in a matter of seconds.

 “What is this, woman? Bribe? Let’s make Johnny some tea so that he won’t throw me away now that he knows his daughter is better than me?”

 _Keep your calm, don’t answer. Just smile, let him think he won._ It’s all she can think as she hands him the cup with a humble smile on her face. That’s right. Head bowed down like the obedient wife that she is. She stares a bit too intense at him as he takes a sip and then starts coughing, dropping his cup on the ground. Katherine watches her husband as the realization hits him, as he understands that his no good of a wife managed to defeat him. She could watch that terror in his eyes for days and not get bored. Does that make her evil? She doesn’t think so, not then. This is why she can’t help a smile when she sees him fall on the ground.

It is only later, when she is alone in her prison cell that she realizes what she had done. And all she can feel is regret, regret that Anna will grow alone because of what she did. They at least let her write a letter to explain herself, but she is almost certain that her daughter will never get that.

* * *

 

 Katherine is interrupted from her thoughts as she feels a jolt of electricity running through her body. Wait a minute. She hasn’t had a body for a very long time. But still, when she looks down, she can see the bones gathering, the flesh growing on them again. It’s a very similar sensation to what she felt when she died. Despite what everybody was saying, that new kind of electricity, that alternating current, hadn’t felt that bad at all. So she relishes in it for a second, because it doesn’t remind her of death. It’s even somewhat reassuring. She doesn’t know how to describe the feeling that takes over her, but it’s very close to being alive. So when she finally gathers the strength and punches through the ground, taking a bit of dirt in her hand, she knows that, even if for a second, she belongs somewhere. She’d think about it more, but her hand is taken in another one. She can barely feel the earth being removed from her face, and when she finally opens her eyes, struggling to keep them open because the light is too strong, she notices an old lady in a wheelchair leaving the cemetery.


	2. The Truth Beneath The Rose

_I’ve been called many things during the brief time I spent on Earth. A daughter, a good sister, a loving wife, a witch, a spawn of the devil, a killer. They say every rose has its thorns. Well as far as poor old Rose Hansen goes, she had some of the deadliest thorns ever._

_When I first met Gabriel Hansen I thought he was the love of my life. I still think that sometimes. At least when I can’t feel the flames on my skin, when the smoke stops flooding my lungs even for a second. After all this time I still hope that someone will begin to question my motives, to ask themselves why a respected wife like me killed her husband in cold blood. But of course, they don’t do that. The only thing they remember is that one day a poor girl lost her mind and killed the most respected member of their community. They think about this every day, even if they don’t admit it. Even if their parents had forbidden them to speak about me, I can still hear the children whispering about me. Making bets and challenging themselves to go to my house and get out of there alive. Because who could escape a witch that haunts them even from beyond their grave? A poet once said A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies. And mine is the darkest of all._

* * *

 

 “Did you choose another one?” The man asks on an almost hungry voice.

 “Gabriel, I-“ the girl starts pleading, but he cuts her off. “Silence, woman! How many times have we been through this? How.Many.Times?” He stresses each word with a slap over her face, until she stops defending herself, until the only thing she can do is sit there and cry like the useless spawn of the devil that she is. The man finally leaves her, disgusted as if the mere touch of her would have poisoned him. “You’re all the same. Creatures of the devil that think they had fooled us. How many years did you think we would believe that we had defeated you during the Inquisition? As if evil can ever be stopped. The Lord is testing me again, I can feel that. But I shall not fail Him. I failed Him enough when I married you, but that was a long time ago.” With a sigh, he approaches her and wipes the tears off her face. “Do you see what you make me do, Rosie? It’s all your fault and you know it. I know you want to defend your sisters in evil, but we’ve been very clear about this haven’t we sweetie? It’s either them-“

 “Or me.” The girl finishes the sentence for him, as she lets him caress her face. His touch is so light now and she relishes in it, because she knows that this won’t last. She knows that the next time he’ll get drunk it will start all over again. But it is the right thing to do. After all, she is the only lucky one. God had given her a second chance when she had married Gabriel. This astonishing brave man who gave up everything to complete God’s plans, to rid the world of all evil. This is why whenever he burns a seemingly innocent woman, she can see beneath the victim’s terrorized face. She knows that even if the girl screams as the fire takes over her, this is the right thing to do. And even if she can hear their screams at night she knows that this is just the devil who’s trying to deceive her, to stop her from hurting her sisters in evil.

 “That’s my girl.” The man smiles and she smiles back at him. “Now give me a name.”

 “Mary Elizabeth.” The woman sighs, trying to ignore the pain of another piece of humanity dying inside her. Her husband leaves her and she enjoys the few moments of silence that follow.

A few hours later, when he comes back, he smells of smoke and burnt flesh. He doesn’t need to tell her where he had been or what he had done. She knows that he had been in the old mine and that Mary Elizabeth will now be just a sad memory to everyone that knew her. What worries her is that he doesn’t allow her to witness the executions anymore. As if he is somehow aware of the thing that grows inside her.

 “It is done.” he says and she can’t help thinking how handsome he looks like that, with that glorious smile on his face, the smile he only has when he fulfills God’s desires. Maybe there is something in that smile that gives her the courage she needs to utter those three words. Maybe something in that smile gives her hope that maybe it won’t be as bad as she thinks it is.

 “I’m pregnant, Gabriel.” All her life concentrated in a few words, and she knows it. That’s why she isn’t even surprised when his smile fades away in a second, when he hits her harder than ever before, causing her to fall on the ground.

 “I won’t be guilty for another spawn of the devil coming into this world, woman.” He says briefly. “It has to die, and you with it.”

 “But Gabriel, the Lord will protect the child. You are his father. You know you can make him good, make him a good man like his father is.” Rose tries pleading, even if it knows it’s all in vain.

 “You are a soldier in the Holy War, wife. God is testing you with this.” His voice is now a thunder and she shudders in pain. “You shall die and your sacrifice shall be rewarded. This is the only way you can enter Heaven. Die now and God shall forgive all your sins.”

His voice is softer now and she almost believes everything for a second. But she had had enough. Deep down, she knows that this is a murder she can’t commit. Not her own child. This is why, when he hands her the knife, his look all reassuring and mild, she doesn’t stab herself with it. Instead, it is his flesh that is stabbed by the knife, and for a second she has a feeling of utter freedom that she had never experienced before. She stays there, blood dripping on her hands, until she realizes what she had done.  She doesn’t know why she can’t help a smile on her face, she doesn’t know why she’s so serene when she stabs herself in the belly and she doesn’t know why the flames that surround her after she throws the candle on the floor with her last powers feel so calming. Poor child. His father was right. He wasn’t supposed to live. And all is well now. The last of the evil witches is dead.

* * *

 

Days later, Rose can feel herself floating above what was left of her corpse. She doesn’t have a very nice coffin, but she didn’t expect one. There will be no sermon, not for a killer and for a suicidal person. Her husband is the only one who gets that, and the whole church mourns the loss of a great man.

Rose can’t help thinking – _how does she think, by the way?_ \- that maybe her story isn’t all black and white. That maybe someday, someone will find the truth. The truth beneath Rose. It is her final thought as she steps in the light, praying that it will accept her. But of course it doesn’t. She’s one of the fallen. And the fallen burn in the flames of-. Hmm. Strange. She expected other type of flames. These are cooling, somehow reassuring. Like some sort of electricity is being poured inside her. Even if she knows this is impossible, she can feel her whole body trembling. She opens her eyes and the only thing she can see is an old lady in a wheelchair watching her. And for the first time in what feels like a century, Rose knows she is safe.


	3. Forgiven

_**Schizophrenia.** The word comes from the Greek roots **schizein** , which means **to split,** and **phrēn** , which means **mind**. A splitted mind. This is the only thing that the doctors were able to say about my boy. But I knew better than that. It shouldn’t have surprised me, really, not when I knew that his father was the same. And once the Devil sets his eyes on a family, he never stops until everybody in it belongs to him._

_**Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers.** Deuteronomy, 24:16. I tried to follow this simple phrase my entire life. I tried to protect my son of all the evil in the world, and God helped me with this battle. At least, for a while. But the Devil finally got a hold of me. I gave up every chance of seeing my son grow up, but at least I know that I managed to save someone from my family, to deliver him from all the evil in the world. And as I head to the fires of Hell, I pray this will be enough to help me endure the pain._

* * *

 

 “Hey, what you’re cooking, Mommy?” The boy enters the kitchen, happiness sparkling in his eyes.

 “Pancakes. Your favourite. Strawberry jam.” Margaret smiles back. Thank the Lord for small blessings. It’s one of the good days and she relishes in the feeling of peace, albeit false, that surrounds her.

 “I hate them!” The boy screams and Margaret has to fight back her tears.

 “Now, now, we both know this is not true.” She tries to be as reassuring as she can, saying a prayer in her mind. _Please, Lord, please, not him too._

 “Yes it is. I talked to Daddy last night. He told me I shouldn’t eat anything you cook. You’re a lousy cook. He even said you killed him with your food.” Her son says and the tears take over her. The boy is right. Even if she knows that he’s not really the one talking, that there is a demon inside him that tries to use her, to make her lose the bit of faith that she has, she can’t shake the feeling that he is right. The boy had always been right in a way. And it’s all because of the voices. Those voices that his father used to hear at night. The voices that one day became so powerful that he committed suicide just to stop them. The same voices that she hears now and then, when she forgets to pray enough. And they tell her horrible things. She can hear them even now, telling her to do anything, just make her son shut up. And for the first time in a while, she actually listens to them.

Her son doesn’t even flinch when she slaps him over the face. He just sits there, looking at her with that dumb look on his face. That look that is supposed to make her think that he is innocent, that he isn’t possessed by the devil. But she knows better than that.

 “You haven’t read your prayers today, have you?” she asks and she is angry. She knows she shouldn’t be, but faith is the only thing that is left for them. And if he doesn’t understand this…

 “I hate you! I hate you and I hate your stupid God and I hate everybody!” The boy spats at her and she hits him another time.

 “Don’t speak like that about the Lord. You can say what you want about me, but don’t you dare utter another blasphemy or I will kill you.” As soon as the words leave her mouth, she realizes how true they are. Is she really able to kill her child? Yes, she is, because this isn’t her child anymore. The same devil that had once possessed her husband is now inside him. And now the voices in her head are stronger than ever, yelling at her to get rid of this demon once and for all. But she can’t do it. She isn’t strong enough. So she sits there, tears falling down her cheeks as she clutches the blade of a knife in her hands. It sinks into the palm of her hand and, as she starts bleeding, she can feel peace taking over her. Blood has always had that effect on her. She doesn’t know if she just likes the sight of it, or if it’s something deeper. Like the Lord accepting her sacrifice, her act of self harm as an offering to Him.

 “Stop hurting yourself, mom. I’m sorry.” The boy whispers taking her hurt hand in his own and kissing it. “I don’t know what got into me.”

 “It’s alright, David.” she smiles at him. “The Devil is just testing us again. But I know how to save you. Take my hand.” With a little hesitation, he listens to her and she leads him gently in his room. She doesn’t know why she takes the knife with her. Maybe for safety, just to make sure the boy won’t protest to praying. When they get there, she forces him to kneel down in front of the cross that is on the wall. She doesn’t even recall how many times she did this, but the sight of Jesus hung on the cross, his arms spread wide as if He would want to embrace her brings a peace to her that can’t be expressed by words. The knife now lays forgotten on the floor between them.

 “You’ll sit here and you’ll pray with me.” Her voice is nothing but a whisper, but the boy can still feel the tone of command in her voice. He doesn’t ask himself what will happen if he doesn’t listen, because it’s a question he doesn’t want an answer for. So he just kneels aside his mother and starts praying. Praying that the voices will go away and that everything will be safe. But he somehow knows God won’t answer his prayers. God had stopped listening to him the day his father died. He never understood what he kept saying about the voices in his head until the night he had heard them too. They were reassuring at first, but then they started saying terrible things about his mother. Saying that she is an evil woman and that she has to die. That even if she prays all the time God had long left her. That she’s nothing but a delusional woman now and killing her wouldn’t be a sin. It wouldn’t be a sin because death would free her, just like it did with his father.

They stay there for many hours, their heads bowed down, one praying for strength, the other for forgiveness. But God seems to be busy that day. That day, the only things they hear are the voices in their heads. And when they lift their heads from the ground, almost at the same time, it is as almost as they can read each other’s minds. They know what the voices keep telling them. _Kill_. A single word that becomes louder and louder with the passing of time and they stare at each other, almost daringly. The delusion is all gone now and they are sure of at least one thing. One of them will finally listen to the voices. It is only a matter of time until it is decided who that will be.

 “Do it, mother. I know you want to, and I want it too. I just want to be safe.” David says and Margaret is so mesmerized by this voice that she doesn’t notice that the boy’s lips aren’t moving.

 “Come here, my love.” she says, arms spread wide, her pose so similar to Jesus’. And she indeed feels like Him when her son listens to her call and cuddles in her arms. After all, this is what it was all about right? Jesus had embraced all humanity in His arms, like a father that only wishes to cure his sons and daughters. And this is what she does now, really, when she tightens her grip around her son’s neck, until he starts breathing heavily.

 “Hush now. Mommy is here and she’ll save you.” The boy keeps struggling as he feels the air exiting his lungs, but she doesn’t release him, not yet. She can feel the life exiting him and she enjoys it. Not the act of killing, but the one of saving. And as the boy’s soul leaves him with his last breath, she smiles knowing this is one soul that the Devil won’t get.

* * *

 

When everything is over, she doesn’t move. Food and water had been designed for other people, maybe, but not for her. So she just stays there, holding the lifeless body in her arms until she can’t feel her body anymore. She doesn’t pray for her, because she knows it won’t do her any good. She prays for her son instead, but he seems to be lacking redemption too. He’s not gone yet and she knows that because now, at night, when the voices come to talk to her, something is changed. Over the course of the years, she had got used to the voices. She knows that there were five of them, two male and three female, all with different personalities. This is why, the first night she hears a sixth voice she knows that everything is changed and that she won’t be able to endure it anymore. She could have born a thousand voices, but not the voice of her son, calling her from the grave and blaming her for what she had done.  

When she gets to the window and the cold air outside hits her she feels more alive than ever. She should have done this a lot earlier, especially since she knew this is the only way to get rid of the voices. Her husband had showed her that.

It only takes a step over the edge and she is suddenly flying, expecting for God to have mercy for her for the last time and shield her in His arms. But it doesn’t happen and the ground welcomes her instead, crushing her bones. At least everything is silent now. The voices are all gone, or so she thinks at first.  But then she hears a new voice, one that she had never heard before. It is the voice of an old woman and Margaret prepares herself for all the suffering this new voice will cause. Whenever a new voice appears, it only says bad things about her, so this can’t be any different now, can it?

But the curses that she expects don’t come. She feels her hand taken by another and, as an electric surge hits her, she hears the few words that she had waited for her entire life. _All that’s done is forgiven._ And, for a second, Margaret dares to think that she might like this new voice after all.


	4. The Cross

                My brother has always been everything to me since the day our parents died in a car accident. He wasn’t just a brother to me- he was my father, my best friend, my prince. Even his name showed he was destined for something great. _Arthur_. Noble and courageous. Destined to rule a world, to gather an army of knights to serve him, to see the dawn of a new age. He’d always use to joke about this and say that if he was Arthur then I was his Morgana and I never got the courage of telling him how much this would creep me out.

                After all, since I’ve been 15, this is all that I could be. His baby Morgana. His  little doll. The one he’d play dress up with, the one whose golden hair would spread on his pillow at nights. I’ve lost count of the nights I fell asleep in his arms, his breath tickling my neck as he sniffed me, like he wanted to drink my essence in. A Turkish author once said _I always wonder why the birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth. Then I ask myself the same question._ I don’t know about him, but as far as I go, I was a bird that didn’t have the courage to fly. Why would she, really, when her brother was everything that she wanted? Well, at least until one day. The day when Arthur found out that some birds have a sharper beak than it seems at first. The same day when I lost my ability to fly forever. Death has been an endless fall since then.

* * *

 

                 “Arthur, are you sure you can’t let me go to school? I mean, all my friends are going and it’s not that bad, it really isn’t.” The girl starts pleading. Of course, there is a side reason she wants to go to school now, after staying two months at home because of an illness her brother had faked. She knows that the year is coming to a close and there is going to be a senior prom soon. Of course, nobody actually invited her – who would invite the creepy witch that lives with her brother after all- but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to go.

                 “My dearest Morgana, we’ve talked about this. You’re way better here with me. I can give you all the education you want and you get to spend more time with me.”

                 “I’ve told you not to call me like that. My name is Lucy.” Her brother seems to ignore this last comment, as he approaches her and takes her in his arms. “Now, now.” He says as he kisses her forehead. “You are Morgana and we both know it. We’re not going to mess this reincarnation up too, OK?”

                 “Yes.” Lucy sighs.

                 “Yes?” The older man asks as if he is waiting something.

                 “Yes, my lord.” She finally gives up and is rewarded with another kiss, this one dangerously close to her lips. It sends a shiver down her spine because it reminds her of what happens at nights when he creeps in her bed. It’s not right. It can’t be. But she can’t get away from it and she can’t tell anyone. After all, who would believe her?

                 “There is something I wanted to talk to you about, my lord.”  Courage builds up in her voice as she decides trying a different approach. “There is this senior pr- I mean, this ball at the court and I would like to go, with your permission of course.” She says as fast as she can, fearing that if she stops, even for a second, her courage will leave her and she won’t be able to finish her request.

                 “A ball, you say?” he asks coldly. “What do you need a ball for again? You want to throw a magic spell on everybody in the kingdom? Am I not enough for you?”

                 “Yes, my lord, you are, but-“ she tries speaking but he silences her with a single move, passing his finger over her lips. “Hush now, my baby. I’m sorry, but for this I have to send you to the dungeon. You’ll stay there until you realize what you have done.”

                She doesn’t even protest when he grabs her arm and drags her after him to her bedroom. Over the years, she had found out that protesting only makes things worse. She can still remember the sensation of water flooding her lungs from when she opposed last time. Arthur grabbing her hair and pushing her head under the water in the bathtub. No, she doesn’t want that anymore. So she lets him throw her in her room and close the door after him.

                As the days pass by and the only living person she sees is her brother, when he comes to bring her food, loneliness and regret build up inside her. Why was she so stubborn, why did she want anyone else besides him? Stupid girl. Granted, her brother isn’t exactly a good person, but he’s not a monster either. And as surprising as it would seem, there are moments at night, when cold freezes her bones, when it is his embrace that she misses the most. This is what a witch gets for wanting to go to a prom. She smiles sadly when this thought creeps inside her mind, along with a new, unknown feeling. She dismisses the possibility of its existence as fast as she can, though. Hate? She can’t hate her brother. If she ends up hating him, then she is forever doomed. You can’t hate the only person who loves you, and you can’t run away from him. He is her destiny and he is her doom.

                But when he enters her room, like a knight in shining armor, carrying the most beautiful dress she had ever seen with him, her heart is full of love once more. So he’s a good guy, he does love her after all. And he will let her go to the prom.

                 “I’m terribly sorry, milady. I can be very selfish sometimes. I didn’t realize how much this ball means to you and-“ He begins but it is now her turn to silence him. “Are you sure? I can go?” she asks excited.

                 “In a manner of speaking. You see, I decided that the ball is too dangerous for you. But, after all, I am king now. I can throw a ball of my own whenever I want. So, milady, would you like to join me at the ball I held in your honor? I even bought this beautiful dress for you.”

                He doesn’t even wait for her answer, because he knows that she will be so mesmerized by his offer that she’ll surely accept. So, with an _I’ll see you in the Great Hall in ten minutes_ , he leaves, leaving Lucy alone in her bedroom. The door is unlocked for the first time in weeks, but she can’t help feeling hate for him.

                Her hands brush over the thin fabric of her dress and she can’t help thinking that, as crazy as he is, her brother has good tastes. The dress is made of black silk and it fits her perfectly. It’s a bit too revealing for her taste, but she is somehow sure her brother won’t mind that. But then again, he doesn’t mind a lot of things that seem so weird to her. Shrugging as to get rid of these thoughts, she goes downstairs in the living ro- I’m sorry, _Great Hall_ , as her brother puts it, hoping that this time it won’t be as bad as usually.

                He has always been this perfect gentleman, so when he turns the music on and offers her his hand, she isn’t surprised at all.

                 “Can I have this dance, milady?” he asks and before she can answer she is buried in his embrace and they swirl together as music plays behind them. She lets him lead the dance, trying to keep as much of a distance as she can. But his touch gets more and more daring and she shivers as she feels one of his hands up her thigh.

                 “Well, this is surely a dress fit for a princess.” he whispers against her neck and she can’t help crying anymore. This is wrong and she knows it with every fiber of her body and she hates herself for being so aroused by his presence. She fights him off, getting away from his embrace and runs as fast as she can to the front door, only to discover that it’s locked, as usually. So she just leans on it, her back turned at him, not wanting to face him.

                She can feel him close the distance between them step by step and when he finally takes her in his arms she knows from his touch that he is angry, even if he tries to hide it.

                 “Morgana, Morgana Morgana.” He scolds her. “You’ve always tried to run away from destiny.”

                She doesn’t know when it happens, or how she has the courage to do it. She just feels the cold touch of the vase in her hand seconds before it hits her brother’s head, leaving him unconscious. _My name is Lucy._ She whispers as she drops the vase on the floor, watching it as it shatters into a thousand pieces along with a part of her. It takes her a while to kneel beside him and check his pulse. It’s still there but it’s fading away – and they are both aware of this. So when he says _Take me to Avalon_ with his dying breath, she can only nod as she takes him in her arms for the last time.

* * *

 

                The circumstances of my death are not important. I wish I could say I lived a long, happy life but this isn’t the case with me. I sometimes used to think that I died with my brother that night, but now I’m not sure. And, as my body is finally at rest and I head towards the light, my worst fear is that he was right and that I will meet him again in our next reincarnation. And that is a thought I can’t bear.

                As I head to the light, I notice gates closing before me and I know that it’s all over. Whatever is in that light, it’s not for me, not yet. I know now that my brother was right. I am nothing but a witch that is cursed to roam the earth forever until she finds redemption. So when I notice an old woman in a wheelchair sitting in the light a single word escapes my mouth. _Morgause?_ I ask but she doesn’t answer. She only smiles as she takes my hand and I feel her electricity passing through my whole body. And somehow, for the first time in a while, I know that everything will be fine.


	5. The Howling

                 _Did you know that drug abuse kills over 200.000 people a year? I didn’t either, not until a few years ago. And we’re only talking about people who are killed directly by the drugs. The studies don’t keep trace of all the other lives the drugs destroy. So when me and Victor started this whole project, it seemed a pretty good idea._

_If you come to think about it, there were many times in history when accidents happened. Not the nice type of accidents, like a car hitting somebody. No. I’m talking about ugly accidents. The kind of accidents that are usually justified with It’s not what it was meant for. Of course it’s not. Nuclear fusion was supposed to be an alternate form of energy, but they ended up with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Trinitrotoluene was originally used as yellow dye. And, believe it or not, me and my husband Victor were just trying to find a cure for drug addictions._

_I fell in love with Victor the moment I’ve seen him. I don’t know what got me the most about him – his intelligence, the look he got in his eyes whenever he found something new, but I was completely smitten. He promised me to make us famous, to save the world of all evil that drugs were. And for many years, I believed him. But it came a time when our research had lost its funding, because we didn’t seem to get anywhere, and I thought everything was lost. And then, Jessica appeared in our lives. I thought she was sent from above, like some sort of message from God that we were doing the right thing. And she was probably sent to us, but from a very different direction._

* * *

 

                 “How are my girls doing?” The man asks as he enters the lab, running towards his wife. He takes her in his arms and gives her a kiss and she can’t help a smile on her lips.

                 “We’re doing just fine.” She replies and is rewarded with another kiss. “Did the tests come back clean?”

                 “Third in a row, baby. Our daughter is clean.” Victor replies and she loves the sight of victory in his eyes. She loves it so much that she hates cutting his enthusiasm off.

                 “She’s not our daughter, Victor, not yet. By the way, you never told me where you found her.”

                 “Why do you care, darling? All you need to know is that she seemed to be a drug addict and she came to us, looking for help. And, in the end-“

                 “It was she who helped us, because of her blood. I know.”

                 “Then? What do you need to know more?” His voice is calm and reassuring, but she can’t shake the feeling that she’s living a bad dream. _I don’t know, maybe I want to find out where you’re going in the middle of the night, why you always return with a bleeding wrist, why our daughter, as you call her, sometimes looks at me with that inhumane look in her eyes._ But the words remain unspoken. He’s too happy about everything at the moment and Claire doesn’t want to spoil his mood.

                But the next night, when he leaves their bed again, she follows him in Jessica’s bedroom. He looks a bit stressed, like he knows bad things are going to happen. Claire watches as he enters and discovers the young girl sitting on her bed, with one of the most innocent smiles she had ever seen. But all innocence is gone when she sees her adoptive father.

                “You’re here. Good. Take me to see the others and I’ll feed there.” Jessica says and the tone of her voice sends shivers along his spine.

                Claire barely has the time to hide before they exit the bedroom and head back to the lab. She watched from a distance as Victor taps a few keys on the computer and opens a door she had no idea it was there. The girl takes his hand and leads him inside and Claire follows them as silently as she can.

                She follows them down the stairs and then into a tunnel which seems to go under their entire house. When they finally stop, it appears they’re in some kind of a cellar. It’s all dark inside and she can’t see a thing, but she hears more than two pairs of footsteps around her, as if someone or something is surrounding her.

                “Hi mommy.” Jessica says coldly. Her voice isn’t the same now, it’s hoarser and when she turns on the light Claire sees that her appearance had changed too. Her beautiful green eyes have turned pitch black and she has talons instead of nails. Her mind barely has the time to adapt with the change when she discovers that there are four more boys in the room, all of them around Jessica’s age. Five pairs of black eyes watch Claire as she takes Victor’s hand in her own, trying her best to shake her fear away.

                “What are they?” Claire whispers on a frightened tone. Victor’s look is full of pride though. “They’re my children, love. And if you want them, they’re yours too.”

                “I don’t understand.” Claire manages to say.

                “Oh, it’s very simple, really. As you know, there is something in Jessica’s blood that prevents her from having any addictions. So I figured I could use her in our research, you know. And I wondered what would happen if I injected her blood in other people. That’s how the boys appeared. Meet Jack, Thomas, Fred and Peter.” he tries to seem reassuring but Claire isn’t listening anymore.

                “You hid four boys in our basement?! What will their families think about this if they find out? This will ruin us.”

                “On the contrary. It will save us. Their families had mourned them already. You see, the thing with the boys is that well. They’re kinda dead.”

                “Kinda?! How can you be _kinda_ dead?”

                “Fine, they were dead dead. But Jessica’s blood brought them back to life. And I’ve run all tests on them too. They’re all clean. Don’t you see? We did it, Claire. We’ve found a cure to all addictions.” He takes her hand in his own and she tries her best to believe him. But there is something about this that isn’t right. Not to mention the mere existence of such things is completely impossible.

                “She doesn’t like us, Daddy.” Jessica finally breaks the silence. “I can feel that.”

                “Don’t worry, darling, she’ll come to her senses. She just needs time.”

                “Time.” The young girl smiles. “Time is something we have plenty of. You two however… You’re running out of it.”

                “Running out?” Victor repeats dumbly but the words freeze on his lips when he realizes what she means. “We had a deal sweetie.” He tries to plead, but she doesn’t listen to him anymore.

                “Did we now? I’m sorry, but you’ve served your purpose. You’ve gifted me with brothers. Now all we need to do is to take another meal before we go take over the world.” There isn’t a single tone of remorse in her voice as she approaches the couple. “God, where are my manners?” She laughs. “I’d like to have you both for dinner.”

                “Victor?” Claire asks, still trembling.

                “Run?”

                “Yes. Now would be a great moment.” Those are the only words they exchange before they start running, but they don’t stand a chance. One of the boys – Fred, Claire guesses – catches up with Victor and rips his throat open with a single move. The children stop for a second and encircle Victor’s now lifeless body and five mouths take over him. Flesh is ripped apart, bones are smashed, blood is sucked dry and in a few minutes all that’s left of Victor is a pile of dried flesh.

                She doesn’t look back and she doesn’t see what is left of her husband. All she does is keep running, praying that she’d escape alive. But she hears their howls behind her, getting closer and closer and she knows that she doesn’t have much left to live. And then, realization hits her. She is responsible for all of this. If they hadn’t been so stubborn, so determined to finish their research… Sure, they would have saved people, but now, when death is around the corner for her, Claire realizes that it wasn’t only the desire to save lives that drove them. It was also their vanity, the need to be famous. And what good is everything now?

                “You’ve nowhere to go, mommy.” Jessica grins when she finds her in the laboratory, minutes later. “We’ll be gentle, we promise.”

                She doesn’t know why the young girl doesn’t sense it. Maybe she is too hungry for this, maybe the only thing she wants is to feed. Jessica is the first who attacks and Claire screams in pain as the skin on her neck breaks. The pain is almost unbearable, and she feels the blood leaving her system, making her knees weak. She falls to the ground and she drops the oily liquid she had hid behind her back and she feels the world around her shattering.

                Nitroglycerin. So seemingly innocent and yet so dangerous. They had used it to stabilize samples back when things were normal, when their research hadn’t gone mad. And now it served as a cleansing factor for what they had done. Ironic in a way.

* * *

 

                When Claire opens her eyes, her first impression is that she is in Hell. There are burning pieces of bodies everywhere and the smell of charred flesh floods her nostrils. _Why is she still alive?_ She can’t help wondering, but she soon realizes that she’s not. Her head has been separated from her body and she watches her hair burn from a few meters above.  She knows that this is impossible, but she can almost feel the flames making the blood in her brain boil.

                Claire sees a light and tries heading to it, but something stops her. _Not yet_. She hears a whisper. It’s the voice of an old lady and soon enough she feels her body being pieced back together. It only takes something that seems very much like an electric shock for her to be brought back inside her body and she takes a deep breath, trying to adjust her lungs to the air again. For a moment, she thinks she sees Jessica watching her, but when she blinks rapidly, trying to chase her like the nightmare that she is, she sees nothing. She only hears the screeching of a wheelchair.


	6. Intro

                There are numerous stories hidden in the depths of my library. Most are sad and full of betrayal and despair. All that angst lurking between the pages, as if it wants to bite the fingers of anyone who discovers it. Humans have always been so strange to me. Your heart is capable of so much love and yet all you do is use it against each other in countless bloody wars. None of my stories have a happy ending. Most of them do, however, have a happy epilogue in a way, and I’m proud to say that is my doing. I am the one who comes after a book has ended and tries to write a positive review despite of all the evil that is in that book. I am Mother Maiden and I don’t have a single unfinished story in my library. Well, that is not entirely true. There are some left unfinished. Those are the ones who worry me the most.

                I can always sense when one of my future servants is about to die, and I know that deep down they feel it too. All that sorrow and regret increased with every hour that brings them closer to their death. Over the course of the years, there hasn’t been a single person able to escape death when it had set its eyes on them. And over the course of the years, I am proud to say that no one escaped me as well.

                But now, when I feel that time isn’t as patient with me as it once was, when I can feel that we’re getting closer to the moment when the tide will turn forever, I’ve discovered someone that has been able to escape us both. A woman that could become my best soldier if I would be able to recruit her. My heart starts beating faster every time I think about the things we could do together, the lives that we could save, and the evil that we could send straight to the bowels of Hell. And for this I hate her. I have always wanted to protect life and yet sometimes I find myself wishing she would die just so I could get her to work for me.

                There is a thing about living as much as we do that only few can understand. The loneliness that comes with it, the feeling you get when you lose everyone that ever mattered to you and last but not least, the knowledge that you’re doing something right. That knowledge is one of the few things that kept me going over the years and I suspect it has been the same for her.

                I have followed her destiny since she had been a student at Oxford back in the 1880s. Being a woman in that age and wanting to study, despite everything that society had to say against that… No wonder there was a part of me that liked her from the first sight. I followed her even closer as she grew up and allied with the most brilliant minds of her time. A strange group, really, that was, and I felt evil growing up amongst them, spreading like some kind of ugly disease in their bones. It couldn’t have worked forever. There was too much at stake, too much unrequited love, too much arrogance and too much professional jealousy between them. So when it finally hit, taking the one she had engaged with, I wasn’t really surprised. Uglier things had happened after all.

                What surprised me though was what she did next. Many would have given up and let guilt consume them, but not this woman. I saw a determination in her that I couldn’t help but admire. We’re not that different, after all. I recruit my servants from the fallen, the anguished ones that have died after doing terrible things in their lives. She recruits hers from the living, yes, but in a way we both work with monsters. The only difference is that she is too stubborn to call them that way. She calls them _Abnormals_ and has even built a Sanctuary for them, or so she calls it. Most of the times I think that this is just a utopia and that the only way to fight evil is to crush it like the cockroach it is. But there are times when her work gives me hope. Hope that someday the world will be a better place, a place that won’t need someone like me anymore. And maybe, just maybe, if my services aren’t needed anymore, I’ll finally be able to see my daughter again. But I’ve lived enough to know that hope is something I can’t afford. Not when I can feel evil is getting closer to me with every second.

                No, hope is definitely something I can’t afford, just as I can’t afford the feeling I’ve been having lately, that me and her are kindred spirits in a way. When you live as much as we do, loneliness is the worst feeling of it all. Of course, we lead fulfilling lives, but there are days when this is not enough. There are days when we miss our loved ones, when we wish we could lead a normal life just for the thought of having somebody to care for us. But we must be alone. I’ve understood that long time ago and I’ve accepted it as part of the burden I have to bear, but she hasn’t. Unlike me, she isn’t alone. Unlike me, she has this great man that loves her and, as much as it scares her, she loves him back. But then again, she is still younger than I am. So I can understand why she is so idealistic to think that she can have someone on her side forever. Of course, given the fact that she stole him from me two times now, she may be right. Or it might be just the wishful thinking of a young 276 year old woman. Her lover would have been a great servant for me too, with all his guilt concerning his brother on one hand and his brilliance on the other. The great Nikola Tesla, general in Mother Maiden’s army of lost souls. I chuckle as I shake the thought out of my head. She stole him from death and as a consequence she stole him from me, but I let that pass, like a service between two old friends.

                _Friends._ I smile sadly as I wonder if this is what we really are. She doesn’t even know me, and it’s all for the better, because I’m sure she wouldn’t agree to my methods, just as I don’t agree with hers. The only thing I’m sure of is that I don’t like open stories, and her story is the only one left open in my library. As a seer, I can read the destiny of every man, living or dead, that has ever roamed the Earth. But not hers. And this uncertainty is what worries me the most about her. What I can feel though is evil surrounding her from all places. I’m not the only one who wants her as a soldier, that’s for sure, and having her become a dark heart is something I most certainly don’t want. Hell is simply made for other kinds of people than her, but this doesn’t mean Hell doesn’t want her with all the fire that he is capable of. And for the first time in many centuries, I know that I can do nothing about it. I can show her the path, but it’s her choice only if she follows it. So we just sit here, two opposite sides of the same coin, waiting for fate to throw us on the same battlefield. The doctor of monsters and the doctor of souls. The incomplete library and the story that almost begs for an ending.

                During the few nights I manage to close my eyes and to get some sleep, I can hear him whisper her name to me, as if he’d challenge me to get to her before he does. And somehow those two words have become a mantra to me, because I can feel that he is afraid. The deceiver of fools, afraid of a mere mortal. The irony of it makes me laugh every time. So the next time he comes to haunt me in my dreams, I scream her name back at him, hoping it would scare him away. _Helen Magnus._ But it doesn’t scare him and he just sits there, laughing at his oldest friend and enemy. _I’ll get to her first_. I whisper through gritted teeth and I fall asleep again, the implications of this promise being clear in my mind for the very first time.


	7. Sinead

 “Magnus, you really have to see this.” Will said as he stormed into his boss’ office. It had been five years since she had recruited him from the FBI and he was now almost sure that she had an explanation for everything. This was part of the reason he was so excited, because a part of him thought that what he had then would finally manage to surprise her.

 “What is it?” The older woman asked with a smile.

 “Declan sent me this from London. I thought it was some kind of a sick joke at first, I really did, because there is no way this can be possible, but I’ve done some research and-“ He replied almost breathlessly, and she couldn’t help giggling. “Five years, Dr. Zimmerman, five years and you still get spooked.” she mocked him. “OK. What do you have?”

 “Very funny.” He muttered as he handed her a DVD. “This is a recording from the Dublin morgue two nights ago.” He said as if this would have explained a lot, but it didn’t. So he waited as patiently as he could for her to put the DVD inside her laptop and to play it.

 “Seems normal to me.” she said after ten minutes of watching a room that was all empty, except for one body that was labeled _Harkin, Sinead, 550 A_. It was William’s turn to giggle now. “Yeah, so it seems at first. As you can see for yourself, this was once the body of a dead Sinead Harkin.”

 “ _Was?_ ” Helen asked in disbelief. “What do you mean-“ She started asking, but she stopped mid-sentence, her eyes fixated on her computer screen. All of a sudden, the woman’s body started shaking, as if she was being electrocuted by an unknown source. And then, the other tables moved to meet Sinead’s, as if drawn to it by something. Helen watched almost horrified as the tables were blown away and Sinead woke up, leaving the room with only a sheet covering her.

 “OK, this is weird.” she finally admitted. “Tell me you didn’t just take a scene from a horror movie or something.”

 “Please.” Will dismissed the possibility as quickly as he could. “You’re sleeping with a horror movie in a way. If I wanted to impress you I would have chosen a scarier thing.”

 “I think I was pretty clear when I told you that-“

 “Yes, yes, yes, I know, who you sleep with is not my concern.” Will stopped her. “Nevermind, we have more important things to do anyway. Like finding out how is this possible.”

 “What do the records say? Are they sure she was dead?”

 “She was more than dead. She had already been embalmed when this happened.”

 “So she had no blood left in her system. And still she wakes up in the middle of the night and starts walking.” Helen said, puzzled for the first time in a while. “Do you know who she was?”

 “You’re thinking she was some kind of Abnormal?”

 “It’s quite possible, don’t you think?”

 “I thought this too at first, so I did some research on her. She was a drug addict that killed her father one year ago. Classic story, you know. She is an addict, she needs money, so she breaks in her father’s house, he catches her-“

 “And she kills him.” Helen completed the sentence.

 “Yes. The only witness was her 6 year old daughter, but it was more than enough to press charges on her.”

 “Did they get her?”

 “Not until she died, no. She has been on the run ever since and she was killed last night by a fellow drug addict.”

 “So there was nothing unusual with her. Well, except for the fact that she came back from the dead.”

 “Brought back.” Will corrected her.

 “Excuse me?” Helen asked, thinking she hadn’t heard it right.

 “Somebody revived her.” Will explained. “The recording. Go to 12:56. There. You see?” he said, pointing at Helen’s screen.

It took her a while, but when she looked closer she saw what he meant. “The sheet crumples, as if something is grabbing her hand.” Helen remarked.

 “Exactly.”

 “So basically there is this unknown creature that breaks into the morgue at night and revives her, but why?”

 “I might help you with that.” Kate said as she entered the room. “Will told me about what happened so I did a random search on strange events that had happened in Dublin since this gal woke up, and I found this.” Without any other explanation, she threw a file on Helen’s desk.

 “Meet Jack Harmon.” she continued when she saw Helen’s puzzled look. “He died in his apartment last night.”

Helen watched the file in silence for a moment, trying to recall where she had seen that man before. She couldn’t help but be chilled at the sight of the look the bald man had in his eyes when he had died. Pure terror, like he had died seeing something that was too horrid for his brain to accept it.

 “Jack Harmon, I think I remember his name.” Helen said after a while. “Wasn’t he a suspect in the Strangler case? I think Declan had mentioned it last week or so. He said all the Dublin police was so busy with the investigation on the Strangler’s case that we shouldn’t worry about it too much.”

 “Prime suspect, yes. He was thought to have murdered five girls, but the police didn’t have enough evidence to lock him.” Kate replied.

 “How did he die?” Will asked.

 “This is the good part.” Kate replied with a grin. “They have no idea. Technically, he was choked to death.”

 “I’m not sure I follow.”

 “They found him this morning, all alone in his room. There was no evidence of breaking in, nothing, except his mirror was broken. The medical examiner was able to determine that he was strangled by a woman, based on the force that was applied. They even found fingerprints on his neck.” Kate continued. “It would have been a simple case.”

 “So they know who did it?” Will interrupted her.

 “In a manner of speaking. They searched the prints in their database and they came with a match. The only problem is-”

 “Let me guess. They belong to Sinead Harkin.” Helen said, worry creeping in her voice.

 “Nice job. We should call you Sherlock.” Kate laughed.

 “Watson, actually, as you know all too well. But I think James would be appalled by this so we’d better not go there.” Helen smiled only thinking what her old friend would have thought about this. He had been indeed a great detective, but when Doyle had asked him to write a series of books based on his investigations, his only condition was that he only used him as a companion, giving the credit to someone else. He had been one of her best friends over the years and she would always smile when she remembered him, even if he was long gone now.

 “So let me get this straight. We have some creature that revived a drug addict just so she could go and kill a suspect in a murder case? It doesn’t make any sense.” Will said.

 “You work at the Sanctuary, Will. Nothing makes sense here at first.” Helen reminded him. “I want you both on the plane to Dublin this evening. If someone is so powerful that it can bring people back from the dead, this is a matter we must investigate.” she continued.

 “On it, Doc.” Kate said and, as she left the office with Will, leaving Helen alone, the older woman couldn’t shake the feeling that she had heard Sinead’s name before somewhere. She just couldn’t place a finger on it yet.


	8. Murder

 “OK, I’m here. What did you want to show me?” Nikola asked entering in Helen’s office. “And where are the kids? I haven’t seen them since yesterday.”

 “They’re off to Dublin.” Helen replied, still refusing to watch him. That couldn’t have been good. She hadn’t come to bed the night before, and as usual as that was for her, he could still tell something was wrong. “What happened?” he asked.

 “Nikola did you bring back anyone from the dead lately?” Helen asked coldly and he couldn’t help bursting in laughter.

 “You are always so good with words. But no, I haven’t. Not since Rome.”

 “Good. Sorry but I had to ask.” Helen said relieved. “There’s this new case I’m working on and well it looked like the device you had used in Rome.”

 “When I created those dumb as a brick vampires. It’s not the best way to do it, as you have seen.”

 “I know. But someone doesn’t, apparently. Here, take a look.” Helen said as she turned the laptop to him and started the recording.

 “You are right, it does seem electric.” Nikola said after he finished watching the movie. “The only problem is that you don’t need only electricity to do this. First of all, the blast seems to be very powerful and I don’t know many things that can cause such a discharge. And secondly, and this should be your main problem, you need to have some sort of DNA to do this.”

 “Yes I remember you used your own DNA to create the ones from Rome.”

 “That’s the thing, Helen. You need the DNA of something that is immortal, or at least is capable of a very fast healing process. This is what revives them in the end, not only the electricity.”

 “So you’re saying that someone could have vampire DNA on their hands?”

 “That’s exactly what I’m saying, and before you go on some high and mighty diatribe with me, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I’m almost jealous, as a matter of fact.”

 “Good. Now. How do we fix this?”

 “Do we need to fix it, first of all? From what I get, there is this chick that is pretty hot and she killed a serial killer. Sounds like my kind of girl.”

 “Nikola…” Helen tried to say on a warning tone, but he leaned over her desk and kissed her, turning whatever she had to say into a silent moan.

 “I have work to do, Nikola.” she sighed, parting their lips.

 “Can I help?” He asked as he got behind her and encircled her with his arms, his lips burning hot on her neck.

 “You can start by leaving my neck alone. And then, maybe you can try and remember if you’ve heard of other cases like this. People brought back from the dead and all.”

 “Right.” He said with a sigh. “British.”

 “Nothing personal, love.” Helen smiled. “I’m just worried that this is bigger than I thought initially. Don’t say a word.” She warned him when she saw his face and he only grinned mischievously as he took a seat next to her. Knowing her, this was going to be a very long evening.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, back in Dublin, Will had managed to pull some strings to get him and Kate at the crime scene. Even after the Sanctuary had gone underground, there were still some names high in the police in every major city that trembled at the sound of the words Helen Magnus, so getting in wasn’t such a problem.

 “Listen, mate, I don’t know who you two are, or what you’re doing at my crime scene, but as I’ve said before, I’ve gathered all the evidence. There’s nothing here.” The detective that had allowed them entrance said. “I don’t like you guys. All I know is that my chief called me in the middle of the night and told me to get you here, which I did. Now, since there is nothing left here, can we please get the hell out of here? The place gives me chills.”

 “What are we searching for, exactly?” Kate said as Will approached what was left of the mirror, looking at the wall beside it.

 “The shards have been thrown too far away from the mirror. Something isn’t right.”

 “What do you mean?”

 “It looks like someone had broken in through the mirror.”

 “But there isn’t anything behind it. Unless our girl Sinead is able to go through walls, I don’t see how this would be possible.” Kate said.

 “Hello, I’m still here.” The detective waved at them and finally Kate decided that he deserves a bit of attention. “Listen, Colin, or whatever your name is-“

 “It’s detective O’Donnell for you, sugar.” he grinned at her. It was enough for her to get mad and press him against the nearest wall. “Listen, _sugar_.” Kate answered as she poked him in the chest with one finger. “You guys are in over your heads with this. If I were you I’d be grateful for every bit of help I get. So why don’t you stay there and leave us to do our job, hmm?”

He didn’t have a chance to answer because his radio station beeped, interrupting them.

 “Can you get to Pearse Station as fast as you can? We have a situation there.”

 “I’ll be there.” The detective said. “You’re lucky that I’m too busy to arrest you for threatening me.” He told Kate as he left.

 “What now?” Kate answered and Will only grinned. “Thought so.” she said and with these words they followed him.

* * *

 

She had been waiting for this moment even since she had been revived. Thomas O’Reilly, finally in her hands. She had watched him as he had grown closer to her daughter lately. The nice coach who was so understanding of poor Susie’s loss. Her mother was on the run, her grandfather was dead and he was everything that she had left. And her daughter had believed him. But Sinead knew better than this. She knew what happens to talented young girls that get too close to guys like him. At first, he would break in their houses. Nobody ever noticed, because nobody ever gives too much importance to a girl that claims her little doll had been stolen. Not until the girl disappears too, at least.

And now, when she finally had him in her grasp, he looked so content in his sleep that it made her want to puke. He was probably dreaming of someone- maybe even her daughter- and she just wanted to beat the hell out of him. But that wasn’t an option. He could have woken up and, even if the sleepers she had given him were powerful enough, she couldn’t take any chances.

It hadn’t been so complicated to get his attention, really. Sure, he preferred younger girls, but a girl that seemed too drugged to protest was good enough for him too. And she had been in that state for enough times to know how to fake it. So when she had offered him a drink he was more than happy to take it. Stupid man.

The station was a bit too crowded for her liking though so she had to wait for the next DART to come. If she didn’t like something about Mother Maiden was that she didn’t want too many witnesses. But she was there because of her so she was going to listen to what she said- at first, at least.

 “Can I help you, miss?” she heard someone asking and she cursed between her teeth. Of course somebody just had to call the police. A young well dressed man who had passed out was a good reason for that, but not a drugged girl that had passed out, oh no. Nobody had ever called the police for her and now the injustice of this got on her nerves.

 “I’m fine.” she spat out at the policeman, without turning around. “He drank too much and I’m getting him home, that’s all.” Lucky for her, he seemed to be satisfied with this explanation.

 “Sinead, whatever you’re trying to do, stop!” a man yelled back at her and this time she turned around to see who was calling her. This man wasn’t Irish, she could tell from the accent- or from the lack of it to be more precise- and hearing him call her name was strange in a way. It was the second time she had heard her name in two days, but this was different. This man was judging herm trying to stop her, and she couldn’t allow that to happen.

 “You don’t understand.” it was everything she managed to say.

 “Of course I do. You think you’re dead and-“

 “I _am_ dead, you idiot. Do I look like someone who is suffering of the Cotard syndrome to you?”

 “No, I guess not. Listen. My name is Will Zimmerman and I can help you.”

 “She said one of you might show up. Will Zimmerman. The one with the dead mother I presume.”

 “Yes. She was Irish. Just like you.”

 “Well, sorry, William, but I have work to do. Catch you another time.” she mocked him.

 “Sinead, you don’t have to do this.” the DART had arrived and he could feel she was out of time.

 “Of course I have to. She said so. And besides, it’s either him or my daughter. Guess who I chose.”

 “Sinead, no!” Will yelled but it was too late. The DART had left the station and Sinead had jumped on its rooftop, taking the man with her.

 “Stop the train! Somebody stop the train!” Will yelled as he ran next to it until he couldn’t follow it anymore.

 “What the hell happened?” Kate said as she got next to him.

 “I have no idea. But she knew me. Sinead knows me.”

* * *

 

Thomas could feel the air brushing his face and he couldn’t help a grin. That chick from the bar had probably got him out somewhere. Great. He was going to get her when he would be able to get on his feet. There was something about her, something that had reminded him of the last girl he had set his eyes on. Little Susie. Yes, he was going to get her too. Mary had already gotten too cold so he needed a replacement. And Susie was just the girl for the job. But all of that, the next day. Now, he was just going to sleep and- what was that? He could hear a man yelling, telling everybody to stop- what train?

It took him a while to open his eyes and he smiled when he saw her legs next to him. Nice legs, that girl had, really nice legs. This was the last thought he managed to have before his head crushed to the ad, metal breaking into his skull. And, as his brain was being shattered into a thousand pieces, he heard two words that scared him more than anything. He didn’t know what they meant, but he felt his soul tearing apart at the very sound of them. _Mother Maiden._ He knew that voice. He just hadn’t recognized her before. It was the voice of that drug addict, Susie’s mother. And, as he felt her teeth piercing his skin, he knew that what waited for him was worse than death itself.


	9. The Gatekeeper

 “Are you sure we need to do this?”

 “She said so, you know she did.”

 “ _She said so_. You’re always like that. She’s not our mom, you know”

 “She’s all we have now.”

 “Yeah, because you got us into trouble.”

 “ _I_ got us into trouble? It was your stupid idea to kill our father.”

 “Oh, don’t tell me you miss that bastard. Is that it? You want him to come and touch you again?”

 “Well, no. But I do miss his toys.”

 “Oh, the toys thing again. You’re such a loser.”

 “They’re still with you, aren’t they? Your brothers.” The old lady asked as she entered the room. “I was hoping they will leave you alone now that you know.”

 “Now that I’m dead?” The little boy asked, cuddling in her arms.

 “I wouldn’t be so harsh on me if I were you. You see, there are a lot of live people that are deader than you.”

 “And where are you on the dead scale?” He asked but she only laughed.

 “Why don’t you go get dinner and we’ll talk after that about this.” She said as she exited the room, silently cursing herself. She was getting old and sentimental, a bit too sentimental for her own good.

* * *

 

Back at the Sanctuary, Helen had been searching for cases of people brought from the dead for hours and it still seemed she was getting nowhere. There were so many reports through history and most of them were completely bollocks, as she had expected. However, a name had got Nikola’s attention.

 “Katherine Meadows. Apparently got out of her grave around 1956. Interesting.”

 “Friend of yours?” Helen asked.

 “You don’t need to be jealous, you know.” Nikola grinned. “I only had one Katherine.”

 “Then?”

 “She was the first woman to be westinghoused.” Nikola sighed. “I remember her daughter Anna coming to me one day and blaming me for her mother’s death. Poor kid. She had hated her mother and still needed someone to blame.”

 “Typical.”

 “Yeah. One more thing I have to thank Edison for, I guess.”

 “What did she do?”

 “Killed her husband, apparently.  If I recall correctly, she claimed that he had abused her and her daughter, but…”

 “But the year was 1899.” Helen sighed.

 “Don’t you just miss those times?” Nikola smiled. “Well, apart from the fact that you were too overdressed back then.” He joked but before she could answer the phone rang.

 “Hi, Will. Any news?”

 “Yeah. The bad kind.” Will answered from the other end of the line. “Sinead killed again.”

 “Who?”

 “One Thomas O’Reilly. I did some research on him too. He was pretty normal, except for the fact that he had been fired from his previous job for what was that- oh. Inappropriate behavior towards children.”

 “He was a pedophile?”

 “Well, the charges didn’t hold, so he found another job as a coach. You’ll never guess who he was training.”

 “Sinead’s daughter?”

 “OK, maybe you will guess.”

 “So she’s a vigilante?”

 “A vampire one. She sucked Thomas’ blood, she has super speed… What has your boyfriend been doing lately?”

 “Listening to her conversations, Junior.” Nikola spat at him, barging into their conversation. “And a lot of stuff that gives us great amounts of pleasure and is completely none of your concern.”

 “Gentlemen, please.” Helen said on an annoyed tone. “Anything else, Will?”

 “She knows me. And someone sent her to do all this.”

 “Who?”

 “She didn’t say. Probably the same person who revived her.”

 “OK, then. Stay around there. If she is indeed a vigilante, something tells me she won’t stop here.”

 “She’s not a vampire, you know.” Nikola said after Helen hung up.

 “How do you know that?”

 “She’s dead, for starters. Not to mention that doing someone’s bidding is not very vampire like. We’re more of the one man show kind.”

 “So I’ve noticed.” Helen smiled. “OK, then. What do you think she is?”

 “Well, as you know, I had done some research concerning my race in the past. Sadly enough, it’s a confusion that is done often, between vampires and revenants.”

 “I’ve heard of them. The word comes from French, if I’m not mistaken. From the verb _revenir_. To come back.”

 “Yes. And given the fact that they are undead and they suck blood, well. People usually conveniently ignore the small detail that they’re not even half as sexy as normal vampires.”

 “Oh, don’t take this too harsh. They don’t know you like I-“ Helen started saying but stopped when she heard a pair of speakers blasting at full volume. ”What is that?” she asked.

 “Not much. Just Heinrich. He’s back from his holiday. Kept listening to this kind of music for a while. I’m surprised you haven’t heard it until now.”

It took Helen only three seconds to get to the intercom and call Henry. It wasn’t that the music disturbed her- it was really good music, actually, but she wanted to talk to him about something else.

 “What are you listening, Henry?”

 “Hey, Doc. Sorry for the noise, I’ll stop it. It’s just that it’s my favorite band and-“ Henry tried to apologize but Helen stopped him.

 “No, no. Don’t stop it. What is it?”

 “It’s a Dutch band. _Within Temptation_. I’ve discovered them a few years ago, when I was playing _Chronicles of Spellborn,_ it’s a MMORPG game that some bastards shut down and-“

 “Henry, the song. What’s it about?” Helen asked impatiently.

 “Oh, it’s a long story. They wrote a full album based on this. There’s this girl whose name is Sinead and she has been a drug addict and she kills her father and then she dies, and there is also this old woman, Mother Maiden, who revives her, and then she goes roaming on the streets and kills bad guys and it’s really really awesome and- Why did you stop, Doc?” Henry asked but Helen wasn’t listening anymore.

* * *

 

The boy took a deep breath when he saw the building in front of him. So many floors. She had told him he would be able to climb it now, but apparently death doesn’t cure your fear of heights. But he had to feed, and he knew the rules. He was only supposed to eat what she ordered. And she had showed him images. One of the girls that was kept there could have been his older sister. And he knew better than anyone how it’s like to be robbed of your own body at such a young age. So, in the end, it was a win-win situation.

This was the thought that helped him climb all the way to the eighth floor. The window wasn’t a real problem either, because the idiots had left it open, so he was able to creep inside with ease. _Look at you. The new Spiderman._ One of his brothers mocked him but he decided to ignore him for the moment. Although he was a superhero in a way. And he did climb walls. Hmm. Didn’t sound that bad after all.

He was disturbed from his day dreaming by the girl that was inside and started screaming the minute she had seen him. He didn’t know what to do, so he just passed a finger over his lips, praying that she would shut up. But of course, she didn’t. It didn’t take the three men too long to get inside the room, wandering what the hell was going on.

The tall bald guy was first. He didn’t even know his name, even if she had told him all their names, because he had been too hungry to pay attention. The only thing that mattered to him was that he had been an evil person. And that was what made him food. So when the little boy jumped on him and tore his neck apart with a single movement of his teeth, it wasn’t remorse he felt. It was relief. Relief that the girls would now be safe and relief that his hunger was finally beginning to be satiated.

The second guy dared to protest a bit more, even pulling out a gun and firing two shots at him. The boy was even able to see how they traveled through the air and then pierced his skin, sinking inside his heart one by one. He didn’t expect it to hurt that much, but it did. So when his teeth sank into the second neck, he drank as fast as he could, tearing at the flesh, hoping that the warm liquid will put out the fire that was burning in his throat.

But it hadn’t and the boy turned his face to the third guy, who had dropped his weapon and knelt in front of him.

 “Please, don’t kill me. Take the girls, you can do anything you want with them, just leave me alone.” He tried to bargain but it didn’t do him any good. The boy in front of him grinned at him, his mouth covered with blood.

 “Tell me, vile one, do you really think begging will do you any good?” he spoke and it was almost as the words didn’t belong to him. “How much profit did those girls get you?”

 “You can take the money too, if that’s what you want, just please-“ He said but he didn’t get to finish his sentence.

 _You’re still hungry, aren’t you? Take one of the girls too, she won’t mind._ One of his brothers whispered to him. _She did say we ought to have dinner_.

 _Don’t listen to him, we can’t fail her._ the second brother called to him.

 “But I’m hungry.”

 _Yes, that’s it, just one more._ It was the only thought in his mind when he turned to the girl and saw the horror on her face. _You see? She thinks you’re a monster anyway, just do it._ The voice kept calling at him and, as if she could hear it, the girl started screaming. The boy approached her and put his fingers around her neck, exposing her to his teeth, but, before he had the chance of biting for the third time, he saw her face and knew that he can’t do it. So he jumped back through the window, leaving her screaming next to the bodies of the ones that had captured her.

* * *

 

 “Listen, Tiny Tim, I want to know what you had done to her. She’s been listening to that blasted band ever since you told her of it.” Nikola said furiously. Helen had locked herself in her room with only a music player and a set of headphones and it was becoming ridiculous.

 “I tried to stop her, I really did.” Henry shrugged. “It is an awesome band though.”

 “She is 276 years old, for God’s sake, not some teenager! She’s not supposed to listen to rock.”

 “Actually, it’s symphonic rock and-“

 “I don’t care.” Nikola said as he unlocked the door and entered. Helen was sitting on her bed, and Nikola could have sworn he had heard her mumbling _Chosen ones. Chosen for what, Sharon?_

 “Helen, we’re a bit worried for you. You haven’t gone out for hours and- What are you listening?”

 “ _Dark Wings.”_ She answered smiling. “And I believe I have just solved our case.”

 


	10. Lost

“It’s getting closer, isn’t it?” The woman asked, not turning to face Mother Maiden’s look.

“I’m afraid so, my dear.“ the older woman approved. “I’m really sorry for this.”

“I’m not. Well, not entirely. I am sorry but mostly because of her.”

“Figures you’d get close to her.” Mother Maiden sighed. “I told you not to get attached.”

“Like you didn’t get attached to the triplets? It happens, mother. We get too old and we get weaker with every passing second. “

“You could have been so far away from this, but you chose to stay instead. Why?” The older woman asked, but Katherine only smiled. They have had this talk a few times before and they both know the answer to this, but she still keeps asking, as if a part of her would yearn for a different answer this time.

“You can’t save everybody, you know.” Mother Maiden continued. “Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and let the evil happen, just so you can come after that, when all the dust has settled and to pick up the remains.”

“But it’s like I’m dying for the second time.” Katherine sighed. “Don’t you think that some people simply go through a lot more hell than they deserve?”

“My dear Kate. So brave and yet so fragile. I am going to miss you when you go.”

“Well, that’s why I’m not going. Not yet. Not until I find you a proper replacement for me. And no, you can take your mind off it. She’s not going to replace me. You can’t replace me if you’re alive.”

“Lucky me this will be solved.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve said it yourself, you can’t see past some choices, especially the ones made by people who are destined for greatness. “ Katherine protests. She knew she wasn’t right, but she hoped that if she kept repeating that to herself, they would both end up believing it. And for once, Mother Maiden didn’t want to argue with her. People are so idealistic when they’re only a few hundred years old, it’s almost touching. Almost.

“Well, if it does happen, you know what your mission is.”

“Yes, mother. But leave her alone for a second. Who did you say I’m after now?”

                “As if you didn’t hate me enough already…” Mother Maiden muttered. “You’re so not going to like this.” With these words, she started telling Katherine who she had to kill, knowing that this would only increase the distance between them. But it had to be done, like every single little thing Kate hated her for. She had understood that, but trying to explain that to a teenager could be a little problematic at times.

* * *

 

Men. The superior sex. Destined to rule over women, to seduce them with a single glance and to make them do whatever they wish. It made her sick just looking at them. But she was one of the few that could see past all of this acting. What they had done to her and her sister even since they were little had nothing to do with greatness. It had a lot to do with evil, though. With angst and despair and with the look her sister had had on her face when she had taken her life. Just so she could be sure that she would keep her body safe from the monster that had dared to call himself their father.

                It was a dark job, but somebody had to do it, or so Scarlet thought. And there were days when doing it had its downfalls. The guy that was tied up in her bed was really handsome this time. Not the usual guy that would have requested the services of a girl like her, but he had, and that was exactly why he had to pay for it.

She had always been careful in choosing her clients, so, when he had seen her with a knife in her hands, getting closer to her neck, he didn’t protest at all. It had always turned him on, letting women in control, allowing them to believe they were in charge. The cuffs were a little too tight this time, but this new girl had something that had attracted him almost instantly to her. He was going to have the night of his life, and seeing him with that lecherous smile was everything that Scarlet needed to remind her exactly why she was doing this.

* * *

 

“OK, so let me get this straight. What you’re saying is that the lead singer of what is one of the most famous bands in the Netherlands is really a 600 years or so old spirit that revives people that had done wrong in their lives and sends them to kill other people?” Henry asked for the third time that night. He had known his boss was crazy, but this was beyond anything he had ever heard from her.

“Pretty much, yes.” Helen admitted. “Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but-“

“Crazy? I’m sorry love, but this is completely daft.” Nikola said.

“Don’t try to seduce me with that faked British accent of yours, Nikola. I still do it better than you. Besides, it’s not crazier than an inventor being the last living vampire, is it?” Helen argued. “She got too many things right, Nikola. _The Unforgiving_ was released two years ago. There’s no way she could have possibly known that there will actually be a Sinead Harkin that comes back from the dead and starts killing, unless she is the one who brought her back. Plus, I’ve watched her other clips too. It’s not only Sinead. Remember that girl you told me about?  Katherine? The one that murdered her husband? Well, she has a video clip on _Frozen_ , which is exactly about the same thing. A woman who poisoned her husband after he had raped their daughter. And the daughter’s name is Anna.”

 _“An_ inventor?” Nikola asked offended, but Helen chose to ignore that.

“Have you been listening to a word I’m saying?”

“OK, so she could have read about this Katherine girl on the Internet or such. It did happen more than a hundred years ago, there has to be some news on that.” Henry said.

“Yes, but it still doesn’t explain Sinead. I’m telling you, Sharon den Adel is Mother Maiden.” Helen replied. “I’m sorry, my phone is ringing, I’ll be right back.”

“Doctor, you’re so not going to like this.” Kate said after Helen picked up.

“Let me guess. Sinead killed again?”

 _“_ Actually, no. It wasn’t her this time. This time somebody has broken in an apartment on the eighth floor. Apparently it was home for a couple of pimps. But Sinead didn’t kill them this time. I only called to tell you because the MO is similar. They have been drained of their blood, Magnus.”

“But it wasn’t Sinead?”

“Not if you listen to the witnesses, no. They reported-“

“Let’s see. Three boys climbing on the building just before it happened?” Helen interrupted her.

“Pretty close, actually. A single boy, but yes. How did you know?”

“So first Sinead and then the triplets. What’s next?” Helen sighed. “Thank you, Kate. Keep me posted.” She said and then she hung up.

“Kate just called.” Helen said when she returned to the boys. “You wanna hear something really daft? The triplets are also hunting on the streets.” She said leaving Henry with his mouth wide opened. “Well, it’s only one, technically, but if I recall correctly-“

“So not only we have an ex drug addict on the streets, now we also have a sick kid with a split personality?”

 _“_ Exactly _.”_ Helen admitted. “Henry? When is the next Within Temptation concert?”

“You’re not going alone are you?” Henry asked with something which was so close to a hurt puppy in his eyes it made her laugh.

“Of course she’s not, she’s taking me too.” Nikola smiled at her but she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Nikola, but I need you here. You have to find a way to send them back to the dead where they came from.” Helen said.

“Oh don’t be silly.” Nikola smirked. “You just don’t want me too close to a brunette Gothic girl who could possibly be a lot older than she looks.”

“Nonsense.” Helen denied as quickly as she could.

“Right. We both know what happened the last time I was in proximity of such a girl, don’t we?”

“Yes well the last girl doesn’t want it to happen again, not with another girl at least.” Helen smiled. “Plus, you don’t even like the music. Henry on the other hand seems to enjoy it and he needed a holiday anyway. So you see, it’s perfect.” She added, relishing the offended look on Nikola’s face.

* * *

 

She could feel the knife sinking in his flesh, taking a millimeter of his skin with every second she pushed harder on the spot. It didn’t bleed, not yet, probably because most of the blood wasn’t there at the moment, but Scarlet knew that somewhere in that sick mind of his, the thought that this was a bit more than the usual role play was beginning to take shape. Silly man.  She leaned over him and kissed him reassuringly, letting him taste her blood on his tongue.  It had always turned them on, tasting her blood after she had bitten her lip. It was only a matter of time until he would realize what she really wanted to do, but by that time it was going to be too late.

                Katherine kicked the door open with a sigh, breaking inside. This was something she really didn’t want to do, because for the first time in more than a century, she was able to understand this killer, her motivation. She was a dark heart, yes, but she had been in her place and she knew that sometimes hate is just too big for you to stop. This is why, when she entered, she didn’t attack at first. She tried pleading with Scarlet, making her understand that what she was doing was wrong, but she didn’t listen. They never did, as the years had taught her.

“You don’t understand.” Scarlet sneered at her and for the first time in many years, Katherine felt offended. She understood more than anyone.

“You want to show them that you matter too, that just because you’re the weaker sex it doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want with you.” she sighed. “You want to avenge all the wrong that men did to you and your sister and you feel that you can only do this by bloodshed, but I swear, there is another way too.” She tried to convince her. If Heavens had taken mercy on her one day, maybe Scarlet’s soul wasn’t lost either, if only she would have understood. It appeared that it worked at first, or maybe the younger girl was just too surprised that this woman was finally able to see through her soul.

“I have to do this.” She whispered, but the knife wasn’t feeling as strong in her hands as it once were. “If you understand me, you will understand this too.”

“Yes. But you have to listen to me. If you do this, I won’t kill you. I’ll do something much worse to you, and I will really hate it. So please, Scarlet, give me the knife.” Katherine pleaded as she approached her.

“Girls, this is the best sex I had ever had. Are you going to have a threesome with me, because I’m totally on with-“ Charles started saying but he wasn’t able to finish the phrase because Katherine punched him, leaving him unconscious.

“I just had to do it.” she shrugged and Scarlet laughed. “So you’ll let me finish it after all.”

“No.”

“Then we’ll both do what we have to do.” Scarlet said. “I knew someone was going to come for me one day. He warned me of this. But tell me, Katherine, how does it feel to take your own soul in a way?” She asked right before slitting Charles’ throat. And, as Katherine sank her teeth into her flesh, draining her of all her blood, there was only a single word that came to her mind. _Horrible_. And the worst thing was that she now knew it was going to happen again.


	11. Jane Doe

She took a deep breath before entering the stage and she couldn’t help a smile. There had been years when she used to think that it was going to get easier with the passing of the time, and somehow it had. They weren’t the young band that played after some kids in Holland and didn’t get too much reaction from the audience anymore. But just because they were an international success now, it didn’t mean she didn’t get the same goose bumps every time she got on stage. The public had always helped her, seeing them so enthusiastic about their songs and singing along with them, but somehow, lately, this hadn’t been enough anymore. But it had to be, if not for her, for her band and for all the people that were there for them one day. They had had rough times before and they had got over them in the end, so what could a few dreams do to her?

                She could hear the intro playing now on the stage, the one with Mother Maiden, and for some reason it gave her a lot more chills than it usually did. Over the years, there had been many songs that had spoken to her in a way, but there was something about this particular one, about this speech, that was different. Like someone was trying to contact her, to tell her something, a message hidden behind words she couldn’t decipher. And it was like the audience could feel it too. Most of the times, they were cheering, but this night nobody was saying a word, and she loved it in a way. Guaranteed chills. That’s what she wanted, that’s what she got. Then why did it seem so weird?

_Sometimes, on still nights, if you clear your mind of wandering thoughts, you may hear them whisper my name to the Heavens. Mother Maiden._ She heard the ending of the video, with Sinead breaking through the mirror and killing Jack Harmon- wait. Why was his name Jack Harmon? She had never considered that he had to have a name until that evening, but now that she thought about it, it was the only name she could imagine him having. But she didn’t have time to think about this now. She had to get on the stage and sing. The whole band was depending on that.

_I’ve been left out alone, like a damn criminal, I’ve been praying for help, cuz I can’t take it all, I’m not done. It’s not over._ It only took her a few lyrics to shake all the bad feelings away. The crowds were cheering, calling her name and, as she took the microphone in her hands and smiled to the public, she let that familiar feeling get over her again. This was her home, in a way. And there was nothing in the world that could be compared to that.

                “You know, Doc, if you are right and she is really 600 years old…” Henry had to yell to make himself understood over the whole cheering of the public.

                “What? She’s hotter than me?” Helen laughed.

“Well, don’t take it personal or anything, but yes.”

“You know, Henry, if she hadn’t been responsible for so many murders, I might have actually ended liking their music.” Helen admitted. “It’s so different to what I’m used to, but somehow, it-“

“It makes sense to you, doesn’t it? Not only the music, but the lyrics. It’s as if every song is speaking about you in a way, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I knew you’re gonna say that.”

“But she’s still-“

“You don’t know that. And even if she is, really, doc, who is gonna miss some killers?”

“I don’t like vigilantes, Henry. A murder is still a murder, no matter who commits it. And I know few that really deserve to die for what they did.”

“Right. Listen, Doc, if you by any chance start feeling nostalgic or something… I know you loved him, but really, you have to let him go. You have to stop thinking that every killer deserves a chance just because you couldn’t save one of them.” Henry sighed. “You know, as much as I didn’t like Nikola at first, I hoped that once you got with him you’d you know. Let go and all that crap.”

“This isn’t about John, Henry.” Helen denied as fast as she could. Was she lying? She couldn’t tell herself. Yes, there was a part of her that understood what Mother Maiden did, but a murder was still a murder. And, even if there was a time when she would have killed the likes of Jack Harmon without a single blink, time had taught her that, in the end, everybody deserves a second chance.

Sharon hadn’t noticed her until she started playing _Stand My Ground_.There was a woman, standing in the front line along with somebody- her younger brother, probably, and she was staring at her. She seemed to be in her late 30s, dark hair, blue eyes, and there was something about her that was so familiar it drove her crazy. She had never seen her before, she was sure of that, but the moment she had seen her the first time, there was a song that came to her mind. _Our Farewell._ It wasn’t even on the setlist and she hadn’t played it live in ages, but it was the only song that made sense with that woman.

                _Stand my ground, I won’t give in, no more denying, I gotta face it. Or close my eyes and hide the truth inside. If I don’t make it, someone else will. Stand my ground._ She ended the song in a whisper, and her attention was drawn one more time to the dark haired woman. _Who was she? And why did she need to know the answer so badly?_ It’s not that her fans weren’t important to her, but she had never been so drawn to a particular one. And the more she thought about it, the more she found many songs that would have worked with her. _Our Farewell. Blue Eyes. It’s The-_ No. _It’s the Fear_ was for another man, the man that had been the most frequent in her dreams. But this lady was somehow connected to him.

                _Our Solemn Hour._ She was now staring at the dark haired woman and she couldn’t help noticing how she startled when she heard Churchill’s speech. It had only lasted a second, but there was a very high degree of recognition in her eyes. Not as if she had heard it before, but as if she had heard it _live_ before. But it wasn’t possible. She wasn’t even forty, how could she have possibly witnessed World War 2?

                _If we can't restrain the beast which dwells inside it will find its way somehow, somewhere in time_. No. It couldn’t have been, Helen thought. There was no way she could have known about the fire elemental they had buried near Carentan during World War 2, or about the time loop it had created. She might have been good, but not that good.

                The rest of the concert went as well as it was possible, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that this woman had something to do with her. So when she got off the stage, accompanied by the cheering crowd, and saw the woman waiting for her, she wasn’t so surprised.

                “Hi, I’m Henry Foss.” The younger man spoke first, trying his best to contain his excitement and Sharon smiled back at him. “Nice to meet you, Henry.”

                “I’m your biggest fan and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be-“ The man continued and Sharon sighed with relief for a moment. So there was a chance they were normal fans after all.

                “I’ll take it from here, Henry.” Helen interrupted him. “I’m Helen. Helen Magnus. We need to talk.” She just needed a touch of the dark haired woman’s hand to see it all again. Only this time, she wasn’t asleep anymore, and Robert wasn’t there to comfort her. They were connected; she had no doubt about that now. The man that had been haunting her dreams and this woman. The earth started spinning with her and she could feel her knees getting weak now.

                “It’s alright, I’m a doctor, I’ll handle this.” Helen yelled at Martijn, who had noticed that something was wrong with Sharon. “She just needs some fresh air. Can you walk?” She asked and Sharon nodded. She let Helen carry her away from the crowd and, just before everything went black, she could have sworn she heard her say _It’s alright, you’re safe with me. Mother Maiden._


	12. The Last Dance

                She heard the wheelchair the moment it entered the room, but she refused to turn around. She knew how this was going to end. No questions answered, more being raised, and a whole new dose of _Sure, Kate, be the cute killer that you are and trust me with your soul even if I don’t do the same._ “I don’t wanna hear it.” Katherine whispered. “How it’s all part of something bigger and it had to happen and you told me so, and all that.” At this, Mother Maiden only smiled. She herself couldn’t see all the truth and still the younger girl expected her to know everything.

                “Would it matter if I said that I have no idea who she is?” The old woman asked quietly.

                “She’s not you, that’s for sure.”

                “Is she?” Mother Maiden smiled.

                “Please. Don’t tell me that you chose to look like this when you can look 30.”

                “Age is just a number, Kate. I look whatever age suits me best.” The old lady said knowingly. “Plus, you’re old enough yourself and you still choose not to show it.”

                “I’m dead. You on the other hand…How dead are you, on a scale of 1 to 10? You’ve never told me. Are you one of us, a damned soul that has returned from the dead, or are you something more?” It’s the one question she had never asked until then, and the mere fact that she was doing it then spoke volumes about how much their relationship had changed.

                “Yes.” Mother Maiden replied and Katherine knew this was the only answer she would ever get. “Oh, that’s helpful.” She spat at her. “Now tell me, what’s the deal with the new girl?”

                “ _New?_ ” Mother Maiden laughed. “Katherine, you’re so young that at times it’s touching. But, to answer your question… Some coins can pay such a high price that they need to be destroyed, shattered into pieces and hidden in the four corners of the world. But, at times, they are forged back together by powers that are beyond our comprehension. You’re witnessing such a moment right now.”

                “These powers… Is it fate?”

                “No. Not fate. Magnets.” It was the last word she said as she exited the room, relishing the confused look that Kate had. The future was her burden to bear and Kate was still too young to share this burden with her. And there were times when a few decades could really make a difference.

* * *

 

 

                It had been like a fairytale in a way. A young girl, all dressed in white, taken by her lover inside a castle. But the moment she had entered the castle, her dress turned red, as if somebody had drenched it in blood. And she just stood there, clutching at what remained of the dress like it was her lifeline, as the castle grew old and shattered around her. And, as she cried amongst the ruins of her beloved castle, watching a clock that had stopped working a long time ago, she was startled by a thunderstorm. and, for the first time in many years, she just felt she wanted the rain on her skin, so she let everything behind and went outside, not noticing the clock had started ticking again.

                “Are you alright?” Helen asked with a bit of worry in her voice as Sharon woke up, struggling to get rid of the dizziness that had taken over her.

                “Where am I?” she asked, still half asleep.

                “You’re at the Sanctuary.” Helen replied. “Don’t worry about Robert and the kids, they’re all well and I didn’t tell them the real reason I took you.”

                “The real- Did you kidnap me?!”

                “I’m sorry, Sharon, but if I had told you that I want to question you because I think you’re a 600 year old spirit that keeps reviving dead people you wouldn’t have been so cooperative.”

                “Oh so kidnapping me is a lot better.” Sharon spat at her. “Wait. Did you say 600 years old?”

                “You can cut the act now. I know you’re Mother Maiden.”

                “Mother- Are you mental? Mother Maiden is merely a character in a comic book.”

                “Yes. A character that also happened to revive a certain Sinead Harkin. She was killed a few days ago, Sharon. And then somebody brought her back from the dead. The night after, she was back on the streets and she killed a guy. Choked him through a mirror. Her fingerprints were on his neck. It’s all in your clips. _The Unforgiving._ And the triplets are out on the streets too.” Helen was very serious so seeing Sharon laugh only angried her more. Not only dead people were roaming on the streets, on _her_ streets, but now she was making fun of her?

                “OK, I get it. Who told you to do this? I know it was one of the boys, because they try pulling pranks on me now and then, but who?” Sharon laughed nervously. It just had to be a prank, because the alternative was just impossible.

                “I assure you, this is no joke.” Helen said coldly. Something wasn’t right. She was either a great actress or she wasn’t lying, but she knew too much for her not to be connected with Mother Maiden at all. “Suppose I believe you. Where did you get the idea for the video clips then?”

                “I don’t know, they just came to me. I talked to the boys about this, and we all agreed that we wanted something along the lines of a thriller, and then- Wait a minute. Why am I telling you this?“

                “Because you need help, and I’m the only one who can give it to you. You may not be who I thought you were, but this only means that you’re in a great deal of trouble.”

                “Great then. Let me go and we’ll talk afterwards.”

                “You’re not a prisoner, not yet. You are welcome to leave- if you can find your way home.”

                “I’ll take a cab. I can’t be so far from where you’ve taken me, I’ve only been asleep for what? 7-8 hours?”

                “Try 7 days. Visapat venom does that to you. I’m sorry.”

                “You drugged me too? OK, I am going to call the police right now and they will solve this.” Sharon said, trying to calm herself, but Helen stopped her.

                “I think I wasn’t clear enough. You’re in Hollow Earth, more than a hundred miles below the surface of the Earth. Phones don’t exactly work around here.” It was everything Sharon needed to know. This woman was clearly crazy, and the only way she was getting out of this was if she played her game. “OK. Where was I?” she sighed.

                “You were talking to the boys about your album.”

                “Right. And then one night, I dreamt her name. Mother Maiden. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I can’t really explain.” Sharon shrugged. “But it happens pretty often, this thing. Artists getting ideas from their dreams.”

                “Yes, but it doesn’t end well. My father told me that Mary Shelly had her problems, and let’s just say Stephenie Meyer wishes she hadn’t dreamt a thing, not after Nikola paid her a visit.”

                “Nikola?” Sharon asked. “Is he your-?”

                “Husband? No. I just-“

                “Don’t see the point of a paper that is somehow supposed to signify an undying love that you already have.” Sharon ended the phrase for her and Helen smiled. She was starting to like the younger woman. That is, if she was younger, because she still didn’t know how much to believe her.

                “Something like that, yes. But back to you. How many dreams like this did you have?”

                “I’ve been having them for a while. I had one at the concert, before I passed out. I even dreamt about you.”

                “You did?”

                “Yes. The second most frightening dream I had ever had.”

                “What’s the first one?”

                “Well, it’s a long story. Let’s say that lately, my dreams had basically had the same pattern. They start with me singing one of my songs, and then I dream about someone. A witch that fell in love with her brother and killed him. A mother that killed her child to protect him from the monsters under her bed. Stuff like that. And no, I haven’t been watching any horror movies lately.”

                “And I’m the second on your list?” Helen joked. “It should worry me, but I’m too old for that. And the top of your list?”

                “It’s a recurring dream. The only one that keeps repeating itself. I am at a concert, singing with my band, and I notice this man standing in the front line. Everybody is cheering, but he doesn’t, he just stares at me. And it only takes me one look in his eyes to become completely lost. Everything around us disappears, and it’s just me and him.”

                “Is he handsome?”

                “Well, it depends I guess. He is not my type, but there is something almost… magnetic about him, if you like. What?” Sharon asked as she saw the look on Helen’s face.

                “Nothing. I just thought- Nevermind. Go on.” Helen encouraged her.

                “Right, so as I said, I find myself alone with him. The two of us, inside an empty opera house. And he looks at me and he smiles and he suddenly gets a bottle of wine out of nowhere and he pours himself a glass of wine.”

                “What wine?”

                “A 92 Chateau Lafite. I watch him as he raises the glass, as if he is toasting in my honor. But when he brings the glass to his mouth and his lips touch the liquid, it turns into blood. I don’t know how I know it’s blood, but I can just feel it, you know.”

                “You said you’re singing something?” Helen asked, trying to keep her calm. OK, so she was dreaming about a vampire. Vampires had become very common in popular culture, and the chances of Sharon dreaming about _her_ vampire…

                “Honey, I’m sorry, but you have to see this.” Nikola said as he stormed into the room, only to see Helen sitting on the edge of Sharon’s bed. The image made him stop mid-sentence and, given the way Helen glared at him, he probably had one of his guttery grins spread across his face. Damn. He watched as the younger girl got out of the bed and approached him with a fascinated look in her eyes.

                “You are real.” Sharon whispered, unable to believe her eyes.

                “I’m as real as you want me to be, darling.” Nikola grinned. “I’m Nikola Tesla.”

                “Don’t even think about it, Nikola.” Helen warned him. “We were talking about something and you interrupted us.”

                “Nikola Tesla, like the inventor?” Sharon asked.

                “Not French, but I could get used to it.” Nikola mused. “And no, not _like_ the inventor. Just _the_ inventor.”

                “The song, Sharon. What song was it?” Helen asked, interrupting them. It took Sharon a while to answer, because she was barely starting to understand the implications of his existence. He looked so much like the man in her dreams, but he was at the same time so different, so much younger than she had imagined him in a way. _It’s the Fear_. Sharon whispered as she stared in his eyes, almost expecting them to turn black as they did every night in her dreams.


	13. See Who I Am

                Hours later, it still didn’t make any sense. Her first impression was that this Magnus lady was crazy, but seeing the man in her dreams come to life was something she couldn’t ignore. He had left, because Helen had insisted on him doing so, but the memory of his touch still haunted her mind. And if Helen was indeed delusional, Sharon had to admit that it was a very complex delusion. She had showed her images, pictures of crime scenes, and they were all just like she had imagined two years before when she had written the songs on _The Unforgiving_. She had even got the name of one victim right. Jack Harmon. But how was it possible? There was a part of her that wanted to find out, but she was in a way too afraid of what she may discover. No. She had to go away and pretend this was nothing more than a bad dream, just like the ones she had had before.

                “You said I am not your prisoner, Helen. When can I leave?” Sharon asked for the third time in an hour and Helen sighed. She wasn’t the type that held people in her sanctuary against their will, but she needed help with the case she was working on and it appeared that the younger woman had more answers than she did at the time.

                “As soon as Henry comes back with the test results and I discover there is nothing wrong with you, I promise. But are you sure you want to leave? We could help each other.”

                “I don’t see that happening, I’m sorry. You kidnapped me.”

                “I would say it was for your own good, but you people tend to never believe that, so I’ll skip that part. But your dreams… Don’t you want to find out why you’re having them?”

                “They’re just dreams, there’s nothing real about them.”

                “Is it? Nikola was real.” Helen argued.

                “So maybe I’ve seen him before and he just got stuck in my brain somehow.”

                “We both know that’s not true, Sharon. Besides, even if you did see him, how did you know what he was?”

                “What is he?”

                “A vampire. And he also has a thing with wine. Just like in your dream.”

                “Is this what you do, Helen? Kidnap people, get them to talk to you and when they do you use what you find out against them?”

                “I’m not lying, Sharon, and there is a part of you that knows that. These dreams you keep having, they are the door to a world you’re too afraid to try to understand, but if you would at least give it a shot…”

                “So you’re expecting me to believe that you are in love with an inventor that was supposed to be dead for ages, who also happens to be a vampire. Next thing I know you’ll say that you had a husband who just happened to be a cold blooded killer.”

                “What?” Helen asked, unable to believe her ears. “Where did that come from?”

                “I was trying to be sarcastic.”

                “No you weren’t. Did you dream about this too?”

                “In a manner of speaking. I’ve seen you in a white dress, as a tall man was leading you inside a castle, and the moment you entered, your dress got covered in blood, so I figured this is some sort of a metaphor for your husband being a killer. It’s stupid, I know, but…”

                “He wasn’t my husband.” Helen whispered. “Just my fiancé. We didn’t get to marry, because he… he started killing before we had the chance to.”

                “You are serious.” Sharon said shocked. “But how…”

                “You said Nikola has a theme song, so to speak. _It’s the Fear._ What’s my song?” Helen interrupted her.

                “Your song? I’m not sure I understand.”

                “Take my hand, Sharon, and listen. What song do you hear?”

                “I really don’t see the point in-“ Sharon tried to argue, but stopped when she saw Helen’s look. It was strange, but if she thought this was going to do something and she proved her that it didn’t, maybe she would have just let her leave. It was the only thing in her mind when she touched Helen’s hand, but the moment she did, she felt like a surge of electricity passed through her body. Suddenly, they weren’t in her bedroom anymore. They were somewhere in a meadow, and Helen was sitting on a tree stump, crying. It had been the only tree in the meadow, and now it was cut down and she just stood there, caressing it until her hands got scratched in its bark and started bleeding.

                “What did you see?” Helen asked, waking her up from her day dreaming.

                “This will make no sense.” Sharon sighed. “But the song was _Our Farewell.”_ She said and, as she told Helen her vision, she saw the older woman becoming almost terrified, like one of her darkest secrets had just been revealed.

                “Let me guess. The tree was an ash.” Helen whispered and Sharon nodded.

                “How did you know?”

                “ _Leigh_. It’s Old English for meadow. An ash tree in a meadow and its blood on my hands. Ashley.“

                “Does it make sense to you?”

                “A lot more than I want it to. I think it’s time I gave you the tour, Sharon. “ Helen said. “But I will give you a fair warning. Once you go down this path, there’s no going back. But at least you’ll see I’m not lying.”

* * *

 

                “Is she gonna be alright?” Henry asked worried. “If anything wrong happens to her…”

                “She’s fine, Wolfie, don’t worry. She’s a bit angry that we kidnapped her and a bit shocked that one of her dreams had just come true, but…”

                “One of her dreams?”

                “Me, basically. Weird, I know. Or maybe not so weird, knowing me.” Nikola smirked. “But anyway, we have bigger problems on our hands.”

                “Like what?”

                “Like this.” Nikola said, showing him a newspaper. “I wanted to show this to Helen, but she was too busy chatting with the Gothic hottie to pay any attention to me.”

                “Listen, Vlad, I get that you took Doc, but I think one is enough. Don’t call her like that again.”

                “Someone is jealous.” Nikola laughed. ”But to business. What do you make of this?”

                “Drug testing laboratory destroyed in a fire.” Henry read the headline. “OK, what’s the deal with this?”

                “Keep reading.”

                “A fire destroyed a private drug testing laboratory in Mexico. The owner, Doctor Victor Walton, was found dead along with four children he had presumably used as test subjects. His wife Claire and his adoptive daughter are yet to be found. It is thought that the fire was caused by an accident, because traces of nitroglycerine were found at the scene.” Henry read. “I still don’t get what’s so weird about this.”

                “I’ve made some research. This Walton character had claimed that he had discovered an innovative serum that supposedly cured all addictions, but nobody believed him.” Nikola said. “And the good part is that he said something about using his own daughter as an experiment to prove this. “

                “And?”

                “That article was from a month ago. This is from last week.” Nikola said as he handed Henry another newspaper.

                “Demon children are among us.” Henry read. “Nice title.”

                “Not as nice as the content. Apparently, according to a beggar that was near the ruins of doctor Walton’s laboratory, there is a strange girl that appears now and then at nights. She’s strangely beautiful, but, and I quote here, _she is a child of the devil and her black eyes still haunt me every night in my dreams._ ”

                “So, what? You’re saying that Mother Maiden plays with young girls now?”

                “You’re forgetting I had my part in curing drug addictions too, Henry. With vampire blood. And, even if my methods were a bit flawed-“

                “As in they cured them of their addictions but they turned them into blood thirsty vampires that you couldn’t control flawed?” Henry asked.

                “You’re so much like your mommy sometimes.” Nikola glared at him. “My point is that there is a chance this young girl is Dr. Walton’s adoptive daughter, and that she is a vampire of some sorts.”

                “What is it lately with dead stuff roaming on the streets?” Henry sighed.

* * *

 

                Sharon followed Helen as she led her down a corridor to a vaulted door. It took the English woman just a few strokes on a keyboard and the door opened, allowing them to enter in a large room. Sharon’s mind refused to accept the reality at first. This wasn’t possible. _It is just a dream_. She whispered to herself as convincing as she could, but her feet led her against her will to the glass that was in front of her.

                “Is that-“ the young woman whispered and Helen nodded.

                “A mermaid, yes, even if she prefers the word siren. The last of her kind, I’m afraid. Her sisters were butchered in the Bermuda Triangle a few years ago.” Helen said.

                “But it’s not possible.” Sharon said as she touched the glass and the mermaid inside mimicked her movements. She was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, with her blond hair and her deep blue eyes that seemed to read your mind, but Sharon was too busy to think about anything else than the sensation that had just caught over her. She saw a glimpse of an old woman that was surrounded by fire, and this time it was nothing like her dreams. This time, it was as if she remembered that, as if this was a memory that her mind had been blocking and that the mermaid’s touch had just awoken inside her.

                “Possible, ugly word.” Helen laughed. “We don’t use it too much around here, but it’s only a matter of habit. You’ll get used to this.”

                “You said you were a doctor.”

                “In a manner of speaking. Cryptozoology, xenobiology and teratology when the need arises. The word comes from the Greek teratos, which means deformity, unknown being.”

                “You treat monsters.” Sharon said shocked but Helen laughed. “And you sing about them. About real monsters. Abusive fathers, serial killers disguised as priests, and don’t even get me started on _The Howling_. I’d say we’re even, but it will take you a while to see things the way I see them.”

                “I’ll come into your world, see through your eyes.” The words left her mouth before she could stop them. It made sense, it made too much sense and this was what scared her the most.

                “So Nikola is really a vampire?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

                “The last of his kind too. Well, he always jokes and says we’ll work on that one day if we have children, but…”

                “What are you?”

                “Ah. You know you’ve frightened people when the question begins with _what_ and not with _who_.” Helen smiled sadly. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m… I’m just old. 276 years old, to be more precise. Welcome to the Sanctuary, Sharon.” she smiled, relishing the shocked look on her face.


	14. Iron

                Three days. Three days without another mission from the hag in the wheelchair and that could have meant a single thing. She knew the feeling all too well, that hunger that takes over your senses and infects your very soul. She had hoped that dying would change that, and it did, kind of, but in the end, what difference did it make if it were drugs or it was something else?

                After all, she was a good girl. She could have gone on the streets and rip out the throat of the first guy that she met, but did she do it? No. The instructions were clear. Only hunt the darkhearts. Of course, this phrase had been longer, with the added part of _the darkhearts I say_ , but Sinead decided to overlook that part for the moment.

                Guns. She thought about it for a moment, as she squeezed the pistol into her hand, relishing the way the cold steel felt against her palm. Power. She liked that, a lot more than she was supposed to. But she had lived too long without it, and Patrick Dorman was part of the reason she hadn’t. _Guilt can be a powerful motivator, and redemption an even greater._ That’s what the old gal said. She should have tried revenge.

* * *

 

                “Hey, Will, check this out.” Kate said as she threw him a folder. “I think I know who she is going to go after next.”

                “How many times have you said that before again?” Will sighed. They had remained in Dublin and had managed to convince the local police to keep an eye on all the recent murder suspects they had had, but nothing. It was like Sinead and the gang had suddenly decided to take a break. And he would have been ok with that if he hadn’t known that killers don’t stop after two murders. And, even if their intentions were good, they were still killers.

                “She knew the first guy, yes?” Kate asked. “She may know this one too, given her past.”

                “Yes, but the kid didn’t know the guy he took out. We don’t know what they hunt yet.”

                “Of course we do.” Kate replied.

                “Right. What was that? _The vile ones that prey on the innocent_ and something about the bowels of Hell?” Will rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you buy that.”

                “Don’t tell me you don’t buy it, Will. You’ve been at the Sanctuary for a longer time than I have.” Kate argued.

                “Yes, but I have been in the FBI too. Serial killers, or vigilantes, or whatever. They don’t advertise in music videos what they’re going to do and most certainly not two years before actually doing it. But fine, I’ll look over the file.” Will sighed when he saw her look.

                “Patrick Dorman, huh?” Will asked after he had read the whole thing. “Started as a drug dealer and ended up as the most powerful drug lord in Dublin. Interesting, but I don’t know. He has an armada of bodyguards to protect him, and I know she can go through mirrors, but I still don’t see her killing all those guys to get to him. Besides, we don’t even know if she knows him. He can’t be the only drug dealer in Dublin. And she was killed by another junkie, why don’t we go after that one, if we’re hunting her relatives?

                “I’m telling you, Patrick Dorman is next on the list.” Kate said. “I’ll bet you 100$.”

                “Deal. And I suppose you know where we can find him?” Will asked. This theory was a bit illogic, but it was still better than to sit and do nothing. Of course, being the bodyguard of a drug lord just in case a dead girl was going to try and kill him didn’t sound that good either, but those were the joys of working at the Sanctuary.

* * *

 

                She couldn’t help a smile when she entered the club and saw one of the guards turning his head after her. Truth is, she had dressed to kill, quite literally, so she couldn’t blame him that much. Death seemed to look good on her. But, of course, that wasn’t why she was there. She was there to feed and that was exactly what she was going to do. And in a way, it was ironic that Patrick Dorman had the thing she needed the most at the time. Déjà vu. Ugly French word sometimes, but this time it was only fate.

                And, of course, he was there, as always. Time had changed them both and she couldn’t help a sympathetic smile. When she had first met him, he was the jock and she was the new girl that just wanted to have some fun. And he was very good at the fun part, especially when drugs came into play. She had taken the first smoke from him and she had become his favourite girl since then. Well, his favourite girl for one year or two, because after that he just found another one, like he always did. But he still was her dealer, giving her everything she had needed. Drugs, money to buy them, a bit of love from time to time and a lot more problems than a pregnant girl could have handled. But the real problems had started when she had run out of money and out of acceptable excuses for the great drug lord that he had become. He had hit her so hard that she was afraid she was going to lose her Susie, _their_ Susie, and that night she swore she was going to quit. But when Susie had been born and she had discovered that she couldn’t raise her, good old Patrick had been there for her once more, in the only way he knew.

                She couldn’t help wondering what lies he had told the two girls that were sitting next to him. It had to be lies, and it had to be money involved, because he wasn’t the handsome man that had once charmed her anymore. Truth is, in the end, she didn’t care. She was happy knowing that those two girls won’t have her fate.

                “See? There’s nothing here, let’s go.” Will yelled at Kate, trying to make himself heard over the stupid house music that was playing loudly in the club.

                “Just a few more minutes.”

                “You want that 100$ too much.” Will muttered. “I’m telling you, nothing is-“ He wasn’t able to finish the sentence, because a gunshot was fired in the club, making everybody there run for their lives.

                “You were saying?” Kate grinned as she drew out her gun, Will following her.

                The second bodyguard had the same fate as the first one and Sinead worried for a second. Those were not darkhearts, they were just stupid gorillas that did their jobs. But then again, if she knew something about this, she was just killing them and not taking their souls by only shooting them, so they were going to be fine. Besides, it wasn’t the time to think about this. Patrick had recognized her, and she relished the terrified look that was on his stupid face as he ran to the bathroom, as if that was going to save him. She reloaded her gun and followed him silently, both of them knowing how this was going to end.

                She could hear the way he panted against the wall beside her, thinking he had got away. She could have ended it right then, but she wanted to see the look on his face, she wanted him to know she wasn’t going to have any mercy on him. So she got out of her hiding, finally facing him

                “Hi, Paddy.” She whispered, his name almost sweet on her lips. “Did you miss me?” she asked, but his only answer was to fire at her.

                “Rule number one, Paddy.” She sneered at him. “Bullets hurt even when you’re dead. You’re going to need that one.”

                “But I killed you!” He yelled at her and she laughed. “No, Patrick, you didn’t. You didn’t have the guts to do the bloody job yourself, so you sent one of your minions to do it. And no, he didn’t fail, but, well. Death is strange, as you will find out.” He fired all his remaining shots at her and threw the empty gun on the floor, trying to run away. But she was too fast for him. It took her a single move to push him against the wall, crushing her lips on his neck.

                “One last kiss from little Sin.”She whispered as her teeth sank into his flesh.

                “She was here, I saw her.” Kate told Will as she went inside the bathroom, but there was nobody there beside what was now a dead and dried Patrick Dorman.

                “Fine, you get your 100$.” Will sighed. “But she’s not here anymore, so let’s go and call somebody to clean this up.” He was only able to take a few steps to the exit when he felt someone pushing against the wall.

                “You again.” Sinead breathed against his neck. “You’re lucky I fed tonight.”

                “Did she send you to do this? Mother Maiden?”

                “Not your business.” Sinead growled. “But if I find you on my trails again, I swear you won’t know what hit you.”

                “What you’re doing is wrong, Sinead. Let me help you.” Will tried to plead, but she only laughed. “I’ve had more help than I can handle lately, pretty boy. This is who I am now. And there’s nothing that can change that. I only pray I get to choose my menu, like tonight.”

                “So she didn’t send you. Working on your own? She won’t like that. Call me when you need a place to hide from her.”

                “I don’t call, Zimmy.” Sinead laughed. “But if you ever get on my menu, in any of the possible ways of the word, I’ll let you know. Until then though…” She let the phrase unfinished, as her eyes searched his face. He was cute, too cute, or maybe she was just too dead and started thinking nonsense because of that. Dreams like this were a joke, she had learned that lesson a long time ago and nothing was going to change that for her.

                “You know, I would say it was nice meeting you, but…” Will breathed heavily, but she was gone. And still, he could have sworn he heard her saying _Why don’t you just say it then_? inside his head.


	15. It's The Fear

                He had always had a thing for numbers. They were so… perfect in a way, but a single flaw, one single wrong number and everything was bound to fall apart. There were days when counting calmed him, when he could visualize things flashing in front of his eyes, passing by three by three, and all was well.

                But there were also days like this one, when he started counting ugly things. All the evil he had caused in the world. He smiled sadly as he tucked a strand of her hair beneath her right ear. Of course, she wouldn’t have ever said that about him. She had been the only one that saw the good in him, even when all his other so called friends had called him a monster and did their best to hide as far from him as it was possible.

                A monster. She hated the word, keeping it for _special_ people like her beloved ex fiancé, for dear old Johnny, but not for him. The worst she had ever called him was an obnoxious ass, and a smile fluttered on his lips when he remembered that day. The day when they had seen each other after so many years spent apart. But it was a brief smile, because he also remembered the way their meeting had ended, with her shooting at him. He had been reckless as always, trying to bring his race back to life, and of course she couldn’t have afforded that. One vampire was alright, especially if said vampire was under control in her bed, but more than that, oh no. The great Helen Magnus couldn’t have possibly afforded it.

                His dear old Helen. The same woman that had betrayed him over and over again, travelling through time and risking the future just to get in touch with him and the same woman that had kissed him, being fully aware that the following day he was going to witness the other Helen, the Helen from his timeline- but he hadn’t known that at the time- in the arms of another man. But it had been a price worth paying, in the end. She was his now and that was way better than world domination in a way.

                _Do you really think she loves you?_ A voice in his head asked, and he tried his best to ignore it. Of course she did, and the fact that she had waited for her ex fiancé to die to make a move on him had nothing to do with it. Or did it? Doubt began creeping in his mind like a plague. Why would she love him? Yes, he was brilliant, of course, and he had changed the world, _her_ world, in a way nobody else did, but what was he, in the end? The only survivor of the only race she had always hated. And given the fact that she was so tolerant with every race, it had to mean something.

                Truth is, he had never had her, not the way he wanted. He had never asked and she had never offered, and there were days when this killed him on the inside. He had tasted her a thousand times, but never the way he wanted to. And watching her as she slept next to him, her chest heaving with every one of her breaths had awoken in him a desire he wasn’t ready for.

                And, as his talons grew and he couldn’t resist the desire to touch her anymore, a question formed in his mind. How many people had he hurt, over the time? His brother. Riding accident, everybody said, but he had been forced to live watching his father having that look in his eyes all of the time. _You killed your brother, and you’ll never be able to take his place. You’re not as good as him, you never were, and you will never be_. He could hear his father saying these words to him even from beyond his grave. And then, all the others. Katherine and Robert, his best friends, having their marriage destroyed by him. Anna, the white dove, who had loved him as a wife loves her husband and had still left him, knowing that there was only one place in his heart and it wasn’t for her. And what was worse of all, it wasn’t for Helen either.

                He knew that now. It wasn’t love he felt for her, it was only lust and a century old battle that he had desperately wanted to win. And now, when she was so close to him, when he could see the skin on her neck pulsating as the blood was coursing through her veins, when her blood sang to him, calling him, almost begging his tongue to touch it, to sink in it and to free him from the damn fortress it was held in, he finally discovered what he was.

                Her skin was warm under the touch of his lips and she let out a moan as his teeth scraped her neck. He had done this so many times as foreplay that he knew by heart all the responses her body had in moments like these. But it wasn’t what he wanted now. _Just a few drops and she won’t even know. She’ll probably sleep through the whole thing._ It was a lie and he knew it all too well.

                “It was about time, Niko.” A voice called him and he sighed. He didn’t like this name. It meant _no one_ in his language and it was the most painful thing somebody could have called him. But the truth was, it fitted him. He was nobody. His whole life had been an endless struggle to invent things that were supposed to make the world a better place, and that’s what they did, but too what end? Marconi had invented the radio, Roentgen got his Nobel for discovering X-rays, Edison was the most loved inventor in the United States and Nikola Tesla was just a crazy old man that had fed pigeons and had died alone in his hotel room. That was the history they taught everybody at school, the history every dumb kid knew.

                All his life, he had been nothing else than a monster, a ruthless killer that lived on blood of the others. Yes, he had made a promise not to feed on human blood and he had kept it, but to what end? Life had taught him that there are many ways to screw people’s lives besides taking their blood, and he had become an expert on that. And he hadn’t been even able to revive his race, so here he was now, alone and with nobody to love him. Of course, there was Helen, but this was a night when Helen wasn’t enough. This was a night when he realized that the only certainty, when you live as much as he did was that people either die before you or they get their lives destroyed by you. And it appeared Helen was destined to be on the destruction part.

                _Yes, that’s it, hurt her like the monster you are. She may deny it, but she knows it all too well herself. But tell me, my dear Niko, what will you say this time? What accident will you use to cover your tracks now? What will you tell to Henry, your only ally in this god forsaken place when he will ask what have you done with his adoptive mother? You’ve always been so good at making excuses, and there isn’t a single person in this world who knows this better than I do._

“Shut up.” He whispered harshly in the darkness, but there was nobody there to hear him.

                _Oh, don’t tell me you are getting cold feet now. You’ve wanted her like this ever since you’ve first laid your eyes on her, since you’ve planned to steal her from the man who loved her at the time. They were happy, Nikola, but it didn’t matter to you, did it? Just like it didn’t matter with Katherine, or with Dr. Coates. You think you’re this great lover and all you do is make girls fall in love with you and then break their hearts._

                His teeth were now almost sinking in her flesh and he could feel the salty taste of her sweat against his tongue. Delicious and more addictive than every wine he had ever tasted. _Do it._ The voice in his head was screaming at him now, but he still knew he didn’t have to do this, because- because what? He didn’t want to remember anymore. He just wanted to take her scent in, to let it flood him as if it were the last thing he was going to experience before he died.

                _Do it, now!_ The voice woke him from the spell that had taken over him. He placed a chaste kiss on her pulse point, careful not to wake her up, and knew that the battle was over for now. But it wasn’t a victorious smile he had on his lips when he turned to face the 12 year old boy that was now sitting on the edge of his bed. It had to be him. Of course it had to be him.

                “Hello,brother.” Nikola sighed.


	16. I Don't Wanna

                “Really, Sinead?” The girl sounded more amused than angry and she couldn’t help a little laugh.

                “A girl needs to feed, Katherine. I believe you have learned that.” Sinead shrugged. “What are you, the lecture committee?”

                “She didn’t send me. I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

                “Good. Can’t say I miss her.”

                “It won’t work, Sinead.”

                “Why? Because he’s dead and I’m alive? I wasn’t going to marry him or anything. He just looks edible.”

                “Last time I checked you were the dead one.”

                “Not in my book. I haven’t felt so alive ever before, and don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

                “We have a mission, Sinead, to fight the blackhearts and-“

                “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but come on. Don’t tell me you spent your last 100 years doing exactly what she told you.”

                “I did.”

                “Good for you, then, and good luck keeping that up. You know what wrong is about to happen, Katherine. And you know you can stop it, and it would only take a little bending of the rules, not even breaking them.”

                “Not until she gives the signal.”

                “Fine then. Good luck dying again. Or killing yourself, whatever happens first. I’m out of here.”

                “She’ll find you, you know.”

                “Well then good luck to her with that too, I guess.” Sinead smirked before disappearing in the night.

* * *

 

                “Listen, Zimmerman, if you pull up another thing like the one last night…” He could tell from his voice that Detective O’Donnell was angry, but he was used to this. You’d think police would have started being grateful to the Sanctuary, but no. All they ever talked about was jurisdiction and breaking laws.

                “I just got a tip and decided to follow it, that’s all.” Will defended himself. “I didn’t know she was going to be there.”

                “Actually, I got the idea, Will.” Kate said on an offended tone. “You see, this Sinead girl is different from the triplets.”

                “The triplets? I thought that there was a single kid.”

                “Single kid, triple personality, long story, don’t bother.” Will cut him off. “What she means is that, unlike the kid, Sinead only seems to hunt people she knows. So all we need to do is to find the next of her acquaintances who is evil and she will be there.”

                “Shouldn’t be hard. Her friends aren’t that good. What about her daughter? Why hasn’t she contacted her by now?”

                “Because she’s dead.” Will said simply. “She doesn’t want her daughter seeing her like that. She just settled with protecting her from afar, that is why she killed the pedophile, but she doesn’t want her to remember her like the killer that she is now.”

                “Oh what do you know, she’s a killer with a conscience.” Kate mocked him. “Don’t tell me you’re getting all mushy about her.”

                “I’m not. I just… I don’t think she’s evil. Misunderstood, yes, angry, yes, but evil… I don’t know.” Will shrugged. “She could have killed me, but she didn’t.”

                “Well maybe you don’t fit her profile. You haven’t done anything wrong.” Kate said. “Let’s just find who she’s after before she kills someone else.”

                “About that, I’ve been searching. I first thought this was Sinead’s work, but the witnesses report a girl in Victorian clothes that left the crime scene with her mouth full of blood, and I don’t see Sinead wearing anything like that.” Will said handing Kate a file.

                “You know if Magnus hears this she’ll kill you, right?”

                “Oh come on, I like Victorian fashion, but not when it’s drenched in blood that’s all.”

                “Huh. So let me guess, you’ve searched the artwork of Magnus’ fiancé?”

                “Are you kidding me? He was Jack the Ripper. I wrote my thesis on him.”

                “Did you get anything right?”

                “What beside the fact that I forgot to mention he was a teleporting Abnormal?”

                “Yes.”

                “Not much, no. I bet Magnus laughed her ass out when she read that thesis.”

                “I’m sorry, Jack the Ripper?” Detective O’Donnell asked. “What does he have to do with this?”

                “Nothing, thank God. He died last year, but don’t mention this to our boss, because she tends to overreact about the whole thing.” Kate said. “Ah, don’t worry, you’ll get used to this if we stay around here enough.” She continued giving him a pat on the shoulder when she saw his look. But, back to your case. A dead prostitute?”

                “Yes. Apparently killed after she had murdered her client. You are right, it doesn’t seem Sinead’s type. She only killed men until now.” Will said. “She doesn’t seem to like them too much.”

                “That makes two of us.” Kate grinned. “I almost like her.”

* * *

 

                They said first time was the hardest, and they were right. It had only taken her killing someone who wasn’t planned to make her want more. After all, Mother Maiden’s idea wasn’t that bad, but her mistake was that she expected everybody to follow her orders, and Sinead wasn’t used to that. She was grateful that she was alive, yes, but listening to orders? Boring. Not to mention that for all she could see, Mother Maiden was a fan of part truths. Sure, kill this one and this one, but never tell the new recruit why she is here and why she had been chosen. Just because she wanted too? No, it didn’t stand. It had to be something bigger and Sinead wasn’t in the mood of staying there to find out.

                She had wondered how she was going to know where to go, but that didn’t seem a problem anymore. Dublin wasn’t the most dangerous city on the face of the Earth, but it had its dose of evil people. She didn’t know how much she was going to be able to hold herself from feeding off innocents, but she was grateful that she could do it at the time. And she had made a promise to herself to start with Zimmerman if she decided to get something sweeter on her menu. But until then…

                It was almost as she could read his mind. She had seen him getting out of the bar and following the trails of the young girl down the alleyway. Most people like him preferred darker settings and later times in the day, but not this one. This one was bolder than the others, and she liked that. Bolder meant spicier in a way and spicy was good.

                The young girl quickened her pace. Why was she there, all alone? She couldn’t remember. All she seemed to know at the moment was that someone was following her, or so her instincts told her. She started running the moment she heard someone behind her, but she had no chance. She had reached a dead end and the man was now closing the distance between them with an insufferable grin on his lips.

                “Now, now, don’t be afraid, puppet. I don’t want to hurt you.” He tried sounding reassuring but given the look on her face he didn’t have that much success.

                “Leave her alone.” A woman appeared out of nowhere and at first he wanted to kick her out of his way, but stopped when he saw the look on her face. There was nothing to fear about her. Just another junkie roaming on the streets. There was no way she could beat him.

                “Oh, you’ll be getting your dose too, puppet, no need to worry. But the fair lady here was first so we need to respect that.”

                “Do we now? What say you respect the fair lady by leaving her alone?” Sinead asked. “I am not going to say it the third time.”

                “Impatient are we?” The man asked as he resumed walking, tossing his knife from one hand to another. “There’s enough of me for both of you.”

                “She’s not going to feed.” Sinead said coldly. “I can’t say the same about me, though.” With these words she pushed him in the nearest wall, her hand choking him.

                “Now. What will you say to the nice lady?”

                “I’m sorry?” The man tried desperately, as he felt his breath leaving him, but Sinead grinned mischievously at him. “Not even close to enough, but I’ll consider it a start. And what will you say to me?”

                “I’m sorry too?” He was so pitiful it made her laugh.

                “Sorry for what? For giving me a stomachache, well. I’ll keep that in mind if I will have problems digesting you. I was hoping you’d say bon appetite though. But then again, why do I expect manners from someone like you?” She thought as she prepared to sink her teeth into his flesh.

                But before she could do that, she discovered her mind wasn't there anymore. She could hear wheels screeching, getting closer and closer to her. The smell of gasoline filled her nostrils until she wasn’t able to breathe anymore and it only took her a second to understand everything.

                “Really? I’m in the middle of something here.” She thought with anger. What did a girl have to do to get a decent meal without being interrupted? _She is going to find you_ , Katherine had said. And it appeared she had been right. Great. Just bloody great. She punched the guy in the face, leaving him unconscious and smiled to the young woman.

                “Sorry, but I got a race to get too, apparently.” She sighed. ”Speaking of which, you’d better run.”


	17. In The Middle of the Night

                “What’s with the long face?” Henry asked when he saw Nikola’s face the next morning. “You look like you could need some sleeping.”

                “Don’t insult me.” Nikola hissed at him. “I’m a vampire, I don’t need that much sleep. I just had a rough night that’s all.”

                “Don’t wanna know.” Henry shrugged. He should have gotten used with the idea of Nikola sleeping with his adoptive mother, so to speak, but for some reason he hadn’t. It was too awkward at times. “I searched intel on that case with the drug laboratory you’ve told me about.”

                “The one with the creepy kid supposedly running on the streets?”

                “Yeah.”

                “And?”

                “And nothing. But I’ve been thinking. If the girl is really a vampire, how could she survive the explosion? I mean, I get surviving a fire, no big deal, but shouldn’t an explosion don’t know. Take her head off or something.”

                You may have a point here, Wolfie.”

                “Don’t call me- Wait. Did you actually agree with me for once?”

                “Don’t let it go to your head. In other news, how’s our guest?” Nikola asked. “I thought Helen was going to let her go by now.”

                “About that, the test results came earlier in the morning. She’s clean.” Henry sighed. “Nothing abnormal about her, except the fact that she keeps having these weird dreams. But Doc couldn’t find any explanation for them, so…”

                “You seem almost disappointed.”

                “I am. I mean, given the way she sings, I was hoping she could be I don’t know. Half siren or something.”

                “You’re such a fanboy.” Nikola laughed.

* * *

 

                It was still much more than her brain could handle. The existence of the Sanctuary itself was huge, but all the creatures living inside… A whole world, hidden almost in plain sight. She couldn’t help a laugh when she thought about all the songs she could write on that. Truth is, it had grown on her, despite the fact that she still thought Helen was a bit crazy- OK, she was legitimately insane, but the importance of her work couldn’t have been denied.

                “Are you sure you want to leave?” Helen asked as she entered Sharon’s room. “I could run some more tests, find you something that will stop those dreams.” She offered.

                “I don’t want to stop them anymore.” Sharon shrugged. “You were right, they are a part of me, and maybe there is a reason behind them after all. And no, I don’t want to stay here and search the answer to this with you, I’m sorry. I’ve been away for too long and people will get suspicious.”

                “Very well then. You’ll leave tomorrow.” Helen agreed. “But note that I still think you’re connected to Mother Maiden somehow.”

                “You’ll never believe it was only a lucky guess huh?”

                “One?”

                “OK, OK, around 12 or so. Does it really matter?”

                “I don’t believe in coincidences, Sharon.”

                “You believe in the existence of almost everything, but not in coincidences. Makes no sense.”

                “I’ve seen almost everything, Sharon. I’ve yet to see a coincidence as big as this one though.” Helen said as she left the room. She had to find a reason to keep her for some more, only until things settled and they caught Mother Maiden and her minions. Somehow, she was the key to solving their case, she knew that.

* * *

 

                “Hey Zimmerman.” Detective O’Donnell said as he got to his office and found Will already there. “Guess what, your girlfriend is hungry.”

                “She is not my girlfriend.” Will sighed. Since their last meeting in the club, everybody seemed to think that Sinead had something with him, which was clearly not true. She was just a dead crazy chick and dead crazy chicks didn’t fall for psychologists.

                “What she’s not your type?” Kate teased him. “You bathed in the same tub with a giant spider.”

                “It was a dream and she didn’t look like a spider, OK?” Will said annoyed. “But you were saying Sinead is hungry. What did you mean?”

                “A girl claims she was saved from a thief last night by a woman that fits Sinead’s description.” Detective O’Donnell said.

                “So what, she’s playing nice citizen now?”

                “With the little exception that she was about to suck his blood, yes.”

                “ _About to_?” Will asked.

                “Well, she stopped just before doing it, punched the guy and ran away.” Kate said.

                “Do you think she’s starting to get conscience problems?”

                “I don’t know. “ Detective O’Donnell replied. “She seemed pretty determined to do it, and then stopped as if someone had interrupted her. But nobody else was there at the scene.”

                “Weird. Unless she’s somehow getting messages in other ways.”

                “What like telepathy?”

                “How would I know?” Will shrugged. “And no, for the last time, she isn’t. And if anybody starts singing about climbing trees I’ll kill them.” He threatened as the other two were laughing at him.

* * *

 

                There had been a reason she wanted to leave the Sanctuary, apart from everybody getting worried. A reason she hadn’t been able to remember when she had talked to Helen. But when the night fell, she knew once more. The Sanctuary was great at days, but at nights… There were things whispering behind the walls, voices she couldn’t understand, shadows that seemed to haunt every corner. She hadn’t been afraid of the dark since she was little, but this- this was different somehow. After all, regardless of what Helen said, the Sanctuary hosted monsters. Things that went bumping in the night. And one of them was after her that night.

                She knew there was no point in calling for help, because Helen wouldn’t have believed her. He was her boyfriend and she knew the old woman was going to defend him until the end of the world it was necessary. But she knew better than that. Maybe he wasn’t as terrifying as he had been in her dreams, but he was getting there, and fast. There had been a change in him, a change so obvious that she could almost taste it in the air around him, but nobody else had seen it.

                The new girl. The Gothic hottie, as he used to call her. She was responsible for this, for his brother coming at night to haunt him, to tell him things he knew he shouldn’t listen to. Everything had been completely normal with him before she arrived- well, apart from the fact that he was a vampire and sometimes his desires got ahead of him, but there was nothing he hadn’t been able to control until she arrived. He had even stopped thinking about blood that much, but when she came, with her weird dream about him, with the whole story of how she is just a singer and that she isn’t connected to the murders at all… Right. If she was innocent then Marconi had invented the radio.

                On the bright side, it meant this problem also had a solution. Of course, Helen would have said this was no way to treat a guest, but at the moment he didn’t give a damn about it. The only thing that mattered to him then was to feed, in the most vampiric sense of the world, and Helen still wasn’t an option. But the other one was going to do. After all, there was a very fine line between wanting to suck someone’s blood and wanting them in other ways, and he knew that crossing that line meant more delicious food in the end. Of course, she wasn’t going to be as tasty as Helen, but given the fact that he had considered some stuff with her too- well, not alone, Helen was there as well, but that was a story for another day- she was going to do just well as an appetizer… But no. He couldn’t do that, not to someone who was under Helen’s protection.

                She could almost feel the corridor narrowing behind her as she picked up the pace, and headed to her bedroom,. Maybe if she got there, maybe if she locked the door- She knew it was stupid, no door could hold back a vampire, but at the moment it was her only choice. And, as she heard somebody following her, there was a single question that haunted her mind. Why her? Just because she had had some crazy dreams and had been kidnapped by a crazy doctor- Wait. What if Helen was in this too? She had kidnapped her after all. Maybe that was what she did. Took innocent women off the streets, charmed them with her magic castle and then fed them to her boyfriend. But all that talk about tolerance and protecting one species from the other… No. It didn’t sound like her. But then again, how could she possibly know what sounded like a woman she had just met for a few days?

                The desire flooded him like a warm poison. He had known this was going to happen sooner or later. That one day he wouldn’t be able to stop anymore. That one day he will surrender to the monster inside him and he will end up hurting someone. It was a good thing he had an alternative beside Helen though. So now, he just resigned to his fate- but resignation had nothing to do with what he felt when he left his room and went for Sharon. He had heard her entering her room a few seconds before. _Just this time_. He promised to himself as he got outside on the corridor, even if he knew this was a promise he would surely break.


	18. Grace

                “I almost thought you weren’t going to come this time, Sinead.” Mother Maiden said softly when she heard the young girl enter the room. “Why are you here?”

                “You mean besides that little vision you gave me, the one where I couldn’t eat a single bite because of the smell of the gasoline flooding my lungs?”

                “Oh, so you’ve started having visions already? That’s interesting.”

                “You mean that wasn’t you?”

                “I don’t pull all the strings here, Sinead. Just most of them. Sometimes, a fallen one can have visions or dreams that link him to his next… target so to speak.”

                “I thought you choose the targets.”

                “Until you grow up, yes. But since you seem to be doing so well on your own…”

                “Are you telling me you’re going to let me go? After all I’ve done? And you expect me to buy that? I’m not stupid, you know.”

                “Well, there are going to be some terms of your departure, but mainly, yes. You wanted independence, I’ll give you that.” Mother Maiden said simply. “After all, this whole afterlife thing is more democratic than you would think. Well, for most people.”

                “So I can hunt anyone I want?”

                “How many seconds will it take you to jump on your little doctor if I say _yes_?”

                “Who? Zimmerman? Please. He looks tasty, yes, but well. He’s too nice for my tastes.”

                “See? You’re already learning.” Mother Maiden said proudly. “I will let you go, yes, but you need to do one more thing for me before that.”

                “One last mission?”

                “Yes.”

                “And then I what? I go on the other side and burn in hell? Because I like being alive.”

                “You’re not exactly alive, Sinead. But you’re not dead either. And if you really want to be in the middle, I’ll let you do that. If you do this for me, I’ll let you do whatever you want after that.”

                “No tricks?”

                “None whatsoever.” Mother Maiden smiled. “I swear on my soul.”

                “Do you have one?”

                “Let’s not dwell on that.” Mother Maiden sighed. “Here’s the deal. I brought back a kid soon after you.”

                “The one who killed his father, yes, I heard of him.”

                “Yes. That’s the one. I want you to take him to help you.”

                “He’s a kid. What can he do?”

                “Time will tell that. You can go and see where your dreams and your visions get you, but you need to take the boy with you. That’s our deal.”

                “So I don’t have a specific target, I just need to babysit? No offense, but I’m not exactly the mother type.”

                “No. You weren’t exactly the mother type when you were alive. Now all can change, if only you let it.”

                “So this is our deal? I play nanny for a kid that killed his father and you let me go?”

                “Yes.”

                “That’s the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard.”

                “Welcome to the afterlife, dearie.” Mother Maiden smiled. “Let me know how it all works for you.” She added and with these words she left the room, leaving Sinead even more confused than she had been.

* * *

 

                “Need any help with that, detective?” Kate asked as she entered the police office and saw detective O’Donnell looking over some files. Will had gone on the streets searching for Sinead and she had decided she was better off in the office, going over the files one more time. She didn’t think that the girl was going to strike during the day anyway so it seemed the logical thing to do, but now she was bored as hell.

                “What?” The detective asked, taking a while to react. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. But no, you can’t help. It’s just a case I’ve been working on, but it’s not your line of expertise.”

                “Huh, so I’m not good enough for your cases?” Kate asked half offended, but Colin only laughed. “No, don’t be silly. It’s just… too normal for you, if you want. Besides, it’s a lot older than the entire Sinead story. No dead guys killing people here, I promise. Just some sick pyromaniac who keeps kidnapping women and setting them on fire.”

                “And you don’t have any suspects?”

                “Can’t say that I do. The guy is smart. Leaves no fingerprints, nothing. Our theory is that he hitchhikes, picking only women that travel by themselves. They let him in their cars, he puts them to sleep - we know this because we have found drugs in all of the victims’ system- , hijacks the car, takes them to a secluded place and then sets their cars on fire with them inside.”

                “It’s creepy enough for me.” Kate smiled.

                “Yeah, but no dead stuff so what say we both keep our cases?” Colin smiled. “Besides, I’m not sure you can help me with this one. The best detectives we had didn’t have any idea with this, and not to offend you or something, but-“

                “Fine, I’ll keep out of it and let the big detectives handle this.” Kate muttered. “And don’t worry, Will had the same attitude with me at first, until he found out that I had been on the other side and I sometimes know how a killer thinks better than he does, with all his psychology crap. But ah well. Your choice.”

                “Do you now? Fine then. You’re welcome to take a look.” Colin grinned. “At least until Zimmerman comes back from hunting his girlfriend.”

                “Just don’t let him hear you call her that.”

                “His choice, I don’t care.” Colin shrugged. “I like my girls alive and kicking, but as I said, his choice.” He said before moving aside to make Kate room next to him.

* * *

 

                “Crazy old chick that she is.” Sinead muttered. “The hell she thinks I am, listening to her orders babysitting some homicidal kid.” She said shutting the door to her room.

                “I don’t like it anymore than you do.” A child’s voice stopped Sinead’s thoughts. “What did she offer you? Freedom?”

                “Yeah, pretty much.”

                “You don’t believe her.” The boy sighed. “It’s alright. We don’t either.” His voice was now more confident, as if he had aged a bit in a few seconds.

                “Then what do you suggest we do?”

                “See? I told you she’s useless. How can she help us if she can’t help herself?” The boy asked making Sinead glare at him. “I can still hear you, you know.”

                “Sorry. My brothers can be well. A bit unpleasant at times.”

                “And you can be a lot creepy sometimes.” Sinead spat back at him. “What is with you? Split personality or what?”

                “My brothers are real. They’re with me all the time.” The boy answered.

                “Riiiiiight. And I thought I used to be high when I was alive.” Sinead laughed.

                “You know for someone who needs our help you could be more polite.” The boy said coldly.

                “Who said I need your help?”

                “She did. Mother Maiden.”

                “Right. And being the nice little boys that you are, you decided trusting her.”

                “Please. We’ve had our share of abusive parents, Sinead, we don’t need another one. But the thing is, this will get us rid of her.”

                “So she says.”

                “The girl is right. We shouldn’t trust any of them.” The boy spoke, but he wasn’t talking to her this time and she sighed when she realized that. It was going to be great getting used to that…

                “Well, as much as I’d want to change that, we have to trust eachother at least.” She tried to plead. “We both want to get out.”

                “All four of us.” The boy corrected her.

                “Whatever. Point is, what does she want from you?”

                “She wants us to help you. You’re not going to find that man on your own, or so she thinks.”

                “What man? She said I need to follow my dreams, no established target whatsoever.”

                “Well that’s the point. The man that sets the dolls on fire. She said you dreamt about him too.”

                “No I didn’t. I only dreamt about wheels screeching and the smell of gasoline filling my nostrils.”

                “See? We’re ahead of you with the dreaming part. I told you you need our help.”

                “Fine, smartass. Let’s get this over with. What do you have for me?” Sinead sighed. 


	19. Deep Within

                “Why?” It was the only thing Katherine asked as she entered the room, slamming the door behind her.

                “Why, what?” Mother Maiden tried to feign innocence but she knew it was in vain. Katherine knew her too well.

                “Mother…”

                “I haven’t been called like that in centuries.” Mother Maiden said with a sigh. “I missed it in a way. But that’s not why you’re here. You’re mad about Sinead.”

                “Now why would I be mad about that?” Katherine asked sarcastically. “Why would I be mad that you let a girl that’s been in the business for what, a week or so, do what she wants basically, while you keep me tied on a leash? Me, who gave up-“

                “I know very well what you gave up for me, Katie.” The old woman said slowly. “And you will be repaid for that, I promise. But I just didn’t want Sinead to suffer the same fate that you do.”

                “Exactly which part? The one with giving up an eternity to serve you or the other one with watching me as I die again?”

                “Ah. So this is what bothers you.”

                “Yes. You know what’s going to happen. Let me stop it. There’s no need for another victim and we both know that.”

                “Yes, there is. It is written. You can’t change what has been written, not without paying a price, and I’m not willing to pay it.”

                “Well then let me pay it. Close your eyes for a second. I’ve always thought heaven was a bit posh for my tastes, so I’m willing to give it up.”

                “For somebody you don’t even know?”

                “For someone who has already been through the same hell I was and got away and now is condemned to live it all over again. And we know how stories like this end. You are right. Somebody has to die. But we can decide who. We always could.”

                “No, Katherine. We don’t kill innocent people.”

                “Right. And Sinead’s boyfriend? He only killed her, and didn’t even do it personally. How is he more guilty than-“

                “I don’t write the rules and we both know that.”

                “No, but you bended them for Sinead. And the only reason you don’t want to bend them this time is because you want to replace me.”

                “The thought had crossed my mind, yes.” Mother Maiden admitted. “But if you’ll still want to stay… You can work together. It would be fitting. You’ve said it yourself; she is you in a way.”

                “Except she is alive and I’m going to keep her that way, thank you very much.”

                “Her death is written, Katherine. The only way we can stop it is if we trade someone for her. And before you say something, it has to be somebody alive, someone he wants more than he wants her. We both know such a person doesn’t exist, so we can only hope we’ll be able to convince her to work for us once she’s… on the market.”

                “ _On the market_? This is all just a game to you two, isn’t it? It’s always been like this. We’re just coins to you two.”

                “A game I don’t enjoy playing, but yes. I’m sorry, Katherine.”

                “No, you’re not. But it’s alright. I’ll handle it myself.”

                “Katherine if you leave through that door there’s no going back.” Mother Maiden said on a threatening tone. “I love you and you know that, but I’m not going to forgive you for leaving. And nobody is, for that matter.”

                “Well I guess afterlife’s a bitch, and then you don’t cross over.” Katherine said coldly. “Goodbye, mother.” She said and with these words she left.

* * *

                She didn’t know how she had been able to go to sleep when all the walls of the Sanctuary seemed to be screaming her name. But there she was, in her bed, sleeping as if nothing wrong could have happened to her.

                _Sharon, listen to me._ She heard a voice whispering in her head. _I know you’re tired, but you need to wake up. It’s not a good night for sleeping._ But she decided not to listen to it at first. She was too busy dreaming and for the first time in many nights it seemed to be a nice dream so she decided to go on with it instead of waking up.

                _She was in an old house that seemed to have been deserted for a very long time. The painting on the walls had started to crumble, but still there was nothing unwelcoming about that house. It felt like home, in a way, like she had lived there in another life or something like that._

_She walked from one room to another, allowing some of the details imprint in her memory. A vase full of lilies in one room, a table set in another, all in perfect state. It was almost as if somebody had taken the house and had frozen it in time along with everything that was inside it._

_And then, she saw it. It had to be the largest library she had ever seen. The bookshelves were so tall they reached the ceiling, but what really got her attention was the title on one book’s cover. Sharon den Adel. Curiosity got the best of her and she took the book out of the shelf and opened it. She knew she shouldn’t have done this, but she took a peak at the end to see what was written on the last page, but was utterly disappointed. The last sentence was <<Desperate to find an answer to the questions that had been burning her, she opened the book and look at the last page>>. There were a lot of pages after that but they were blank. So she sighed and decided to close the book but before she could do that she noticed a new sentence appearing on the last written page. She turned around and saw Mother Maiden watching her. Not her again, she thought._

“Hello, Sharon.” She turned around and saw an old lady in a wheelchair watching her.

                “You. And here I was hoping I’d have a normal dream.”

                “Welcome to the club, darling.” Mother Maiden smiled. “Come on. Ask me.”

                “What?”

                “What you’ve been willing to ask for ages.”

                “Are you-“

                “Real? Yes. Is this a dream? Yes. Did I get you the ideas for writing _The Unforgiving?_ Sadly, no, even if I wish I could take the credit for that. And yes, I will stop to take a breath for once in a while. Just not now. And no, I won’t stop reading your thoughts.”

                “So the whole thing with Sinead and Katherine and-“

                “All true, I’m afraid. No, you can’t meet them. Not yet.”

                “What is this place?”

                “Well, I guess you can call it my home. But you’ve seen it. This is the library in your video clips. My library. And yes, this means all books here are written by me- well, at least their ending. Every single person that has lived in the last- dear God, I lost count. Let’s say around 600 years.”

                “Well you know what I’m going to ask next, so you might as well answer it already.”

                “Why isn’t your book finished? Because you’re still alive, dear. It writes itself as your life goes on.”

                “I wasn’t going to ask that.” Sharon said with surprise in her voice. “You could read my mind until now. So either you just got rusty with this one or you don’t want to answer the question.”

                “Why did I think that was going to work again?” Mother Maiden sighed. “I don’t know what causes your dreams, Sharon. I’m not, I promise you.”

                “But you’re 600 years old. You have to know somebody who went through the same things at me, who had…, can I call them premonitions?”

                “If you’d like. I don’t know what they are, Sharon, and frankly, you should ask Helen about them not me. I know she hasn’t told you anything yet, but if it is something scientifically explainable, she will discover it.”

                “Alright. What was the big deal about you answering that? That is, if you told me the truth.”

                “And that is your real question. How much of this is a dream and how much is real.”

                “Yes.”

                “Frightening not to know, is it?” Mother Maiden smiled. “As I said before, welcome to the club.”

                “What don’t tell me you’re frightened of something? You are 600 years old. What can possibly scare you so much?”

                “If I say _symphonic rock_ , will you take it as an insult?”

                “I’m dreaming about a 600 year old lady that says my music scares her, I’ve just found out that basically every monster I’ve ever had a nightmare about is real and that apparently I’m a seer of some sorts. If I’m not taking any of this as an insult from fate, I’m not going to take you either.”

                “Good. Well, then. See you around.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “I mean if you don’t wake up in the next 3 minutes you’ll end up on the same side of life as me and that, Sharon, is a club you’re not getting into. Not yet.”

                Mother Maiden watched as the younger woman disappeared, living her alone in the library. _Her_ library. The one that was closed to anybody she didn’t want there. The one that could only welcome people who had passed away. And the one who had just been tainted by the presence of a mere mortal. With a smile, she took Sharon’s book and placed it back on its shelf, trying to ignore the fact that one week before that book had a very specific ending that was now gone. Dozens of pages that had been erased as if they had never been there. Just a coincidence, like all of the ones before. Right. As if she didn’t have enough problems by now…


	20. A Dangerous Mind

                Sharon woke up only minutes later, but still didn’t know what to think about the dream she had just had. And, in the end, how could she? You don’t find out each day that one of your best creations is in fact real- if that was the proper word, because she still wasn’t sure of that- and that she apparently thinks you are going to die in a few minutes. She would have dismissed it all, claimed that it had only been a stupid dream, that it was no reason for it to be true, but after Nikola had proven to be alive, why would she not believe that- Her mind froze for a second. Nikola. Somehow, he was the key to all of this. Not his weird girlfriend, not all the monsters or whatever said girlfriend wished to call them, oh no. Nikola was the one she needed to face. The rest had been only distractions.

                It only took her a second to decide what she had to do. Finding him wasn’t the problem- she remembered Helen mentioning that if he wasn’t sleeping, he would usually spend the nights in his lab, researching or doing experiments. The real problem was why she would go in the middle of the night to search for a vampire. It sounded like a bad idea, but it also sounded like the only thing that made sense at the moment, so she decided to go anyway.

                Back in his lab, Nikola had his own problems. He had been barely able to stop himself from going after the new girl, but as the hours had passed, he couldn’t help wondering if he hadn’t made a mistake. He had thought that working would help ease his mind- after all, he still needed to investigate Victor Walton’s case. There was something awfully strange about it. From what he had been able to gather, the good doctor hadn’t been exactly a celebrity of the medical world- of course, curing all addictions was a bold quest- Nikola had tried it himself after all, albeit with some… side effects, but to think that a mere mortal was able to design something like that… Not to mention that it was the second time somebody tried to find a cure for addictions and ended up with something that sounded too much a vampire for his liking. And this kid… If this Walton guy had somehow stolen his research and managed to turn her into a vampire, and that was a huge if, why was she still alive? Henry had been right- vampires may have been hard to kill, but an explosion that strong… He wished he could have some help with the investigation, but no, everybody was too busy working on Sinead and the rest of the dead guys roaming the streets.

                “Having trouble sleeping?” A voice stopped his thoughts. He turned around and saw Sharon watching him.

                “I don’t sleep. Not as much as you do anyway. Vampire, remember?”

                “Vampire blood. Helen explained me she doesn’t sleep that much either, so I’m guessing- Why are you smiling?”

                “She used to sleep more before we got together, but well. I have that effect on people.”

                “Ah.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she left it there. “What are you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

                “Well since everybody is busy with you, I figured I should do my own research on this.”

                “I didn’t ask for this, alright?”

                “I know. But since Helen seems to think you’re some 2000 years hag, which by the way, I find insulting, because she should know how old feels like and no offense but you don’t have it in you-“

                “Can I take a look?” Sharon interrupted him.

                “For the record, I don’t know why I’m doing this.” Nikola said as he handed her the files.

                “Noted.” It was the only thing she said before taking it and looking through the papers. At first, she wasn’t able to make anything of them. But then, she noticed the title of a news article. _Demon child howls in the night_. _Howls. The Howling._ _No, it couldn’t have been. If that was another connection to her, she didn’t want to even begin to think about the implications of this._

                “I really don’t know how you can help me with this. I mean, if I wasn’t able to find out anything-“ Nikola interrupted her thoughts.

                “Yes well apparently Mother Maiden is my specialty, so you shouldn’t take it personally.” Sharon smiled. “What?” She asked when she saw his look.

                “One, you’re starting to like this too much for your own good. Two, really? I know Helen is obsessed with her and well you created her so you are obviously attached to her, but stop seeing her in anything, OK? This is not her work.”

                “And you know that how, exactly?”

                “Well, assuming she exists, doesn’t she target killers or something like that? What is her business with a young girl that was a drug addict?”

                “The girl is not the only one.”

                “What do you mean the girl is not the only one? Witnesses only said about one kid.”

                “Well she’s probably the hungriest, but she is not alone.”

                “You mean there are other vampire kids?”

                “You said Mother Maiden doesn’t make vampires.” Sharon reminded him. “And yes, if I’m correct, I think there were five kids that got turned into vampires.”

                “And you know that because you dreamed about it?”

                “In a manner of speaking.”

                “Would you like to share with the class?”

                “ _I feel they’re getting closer_. _They._ Not _her._ ”

                “I’m not following.”

                “I won’t bother you with the details. But you’re asking the wrong question, Nikola. The real question you should be asking is another one. I don’t know much about vampires, I’ll admit that, but a deflagration that big-“

                “Should have killed them, yes, thank you, I thought about that too.” Nikola said impatiently. “What’s your point?”

                “My point is they died.”

                “So they’re on the streets because Mother Maiden revived them?”

                “Not so sure about the _them_ part here, but yes.”

                “So the question is…”

                “Why would Mother Maiden bother reviving vampires? No offense, but you don’t seem like the type she wants to save normally.”

                “Maybe she didn’t save them. Maybe there is somebody else out there who does the same thing, only with I don’t know. Dangerous stuff?

                “No. This is her work.”

                “You know, you seem to get her too well.”

                “Don’t start with the _you’re Mother Maiden_ theory again, please. I already got it from Helen, and I am not in the mood for it.” Sharon sighed. “I don’t know what she has to do with me, I swear, but I dreamed about her a few hours ago and she seemed to know me, to know what we were facing-“

                “And I’m supposed to trust your dreams?”

                “You were in them.” Sharon pointed out.

                “Yeah, drinking blood, which I think Helen told you I gave up almost a century ago-“

                “And still all it takes to make you think about it again is a crazy woman and some weird dreams she has. Don’t deny it, Nikola. I know you thought about it. I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

                “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not the first on my list when it comes to that.”

                “No, but I am the second. And since you don’t exactly have the guts to go after the first on your list…”

                “Do you really think this is about courage? You’re making me sound like a dickhead I once knew. I’m not a killer, Sharon. I can control myself. And if I would want a victim, I wouldn’t take replacements. I’m not-“

                “Jack.”

                “His name was John actually, but yes I meant him, and I am better than him.”

                “Are you? This is what you’ve been asking yourself the whole time, isn’t it?” The words left her mouth almost without her noticing. Of course. It all made sense now. She didn’t know what had happened that night, but she had started seeing things differently since she had been in Mother Maiden’s library. She had had visions before but this was different. It was almost as if she could taste the guilt in Nikola’s eyes. Guilt concerning his brother, all the friends he had disappointed over the years and, finally, guilt about Helen. She was the center of his universe, the one who had saved him so many times, but also the one he had disappointed the most times.

                “I don’t know what you mean.”

                “I think you do, Nikola.” She took a deep breath before continuing, because she knew that challenging him like that was probably a bad idea, but somebody had to do it. To be completely honest with herself, she didn’t know how she had got the courage to do it, but the truth was she needed to get to the bottom of this, and soon. It was becoming clear that she had a big part to play in this, because everything seemed to point back at her and her songs, so why not start playing the part already? “Your whole life was you trying to be better than others, Nikola. Your dead brother, at first, then Edison, then John, Helen too sometimes, but she’s different in a way, because you love her-

                “OK, let’s say I get my brother and Helen and that bastard, but why would I need reassuring that I am better than Druitt? He was a complete idiot and-“

                “And still, Helen loved him, in a way she never loved you. She’s a doctor, Nikola. And doctors need patients. They need somebody to cure, somebody to save, and somebody that can’t live without their help. John was that. You can manage on your own, though. Which makes you… I don’t know. Less challenging, in a way. And correct me if I’m wrong, but she doesn’t seem the vampire fan type.”

                “She’s not. But she makes exceptions.”

                “Or maybe she just likes how you two spend your nights together.”

                “I am good with that.” Nikola shrugged.

                “But is it enough?”

                “Who are you to question it anyway? You’re just a singer I didn’t even know until a week ago.”

                “The real question, Nikola, is who are you to question it.” Sharon smiled. “I only told you things you keep thinking about every night. Good luck on your research, Nikola. I hope you find your answers.”


	21. Destroyed

                "OK, so what’s the deal with the dolls and the guy who sets them on fire?” Sinead asked.

                “Well, it’s not like we can see a face or something useful.” The little boy answered with a small voice. “But we think-“

                “I think. It was my idea.” His voice changed again, making Sinead shiver. She still hadn’t got used to it.

                “OK, OK, one of you thinks-“ She said on a peaceful tone.

                “It has something to do with this. Mother Maiden showed it to us a few days ago when we first started having the dreams.” The boy searched his pockets and handed Sinead a piece of paper that had been cut from a newspaper.

                “The Dublin arsonist? Catchy. So you think he’s our next target?”

                “I’d say it’s a safe bet. We dreamt about the dolls, you smelled gasoline… That’s how he sets the on fire, you know, with-“

                “I know to read, thanks kid.” Sinead interrupted him. “OK. Suppose I buy this whole thing. But who is he? The police don’t have any suspects.”

                “Well that’s when you come into play.” The boy smiled at her. “Normally, Mother Maiden would have told us that, but I guess handling the problem ourselves is part of the deal.”

                “So she expects us to do what? Investigate, like we’re real cops or something?”

                “Don’t start with that, please. My brother still thinks we’re Spiderman since we entered that building.”

                “A little crawling on walls doesn’t make you Spiderman, kid.”

                “That’s what I keep telling him.”

                “You started it.”

                “Can you please stop arguing with yourself for a moment?” Sinead interrupted him. “Good. Now tell me, Spiderman, where do you suggest we start? And if you call me Mary Jane I swear I’m going to kill you. Yes, I know you’re dead already, but there has to be a bloody way to do it.”

                “Well apparently a Detective O’Donnell is in charge of the case. Maybe you should ask him what he discovered until now.”

                “Me?”

                “Yes. You’re the grown up, we can’t exactly expect he’ll tell details of the case to some kid he just met on the streets.”

                “Also true. Which means I get to go to the police station. Great.” She couldn’t help a smile on her lips when she said that. If she was lucky, she could meet the nosy doctor there. And if he was lucky, she could decide to refrain herself from jumping at his neck. Again. Sometimes being nice just didn’t pay off…

                “By the way, we need to go somewhere first.” Sinead said.

* * *

                “What’s with the long face, Zimmerman? Sad your girlfriend took a day off?” Detective O’Donnell asked.

                “For the last time, she’s not my girlfriend.”

                “Whatever. By the way, why do you get your nose into my cases again?” the detective asked on an annoyed tone. He had agreed for Kate to take a peak, yes, but now that Zimmerman had got back and started doing it too, it got on his nerves. Who were they to take care of his cases anyway? He didn’t ask for them, that was sure, and just because their boss had apparently all the Dublin police at her fingertips, it didn’t mean that they had the right to think they were better at solving cases than he was.

                “Because we’re bored.” Kate shrugged. “And you look like you could use some help anyway, at least with the arsonist’s case. Come on, so many months and no leads? It looks like you don’t want to solve it.”

                “Don’t be silly. I told you, the guy is too good.”

                “Or your profilers are too bad.” Will pointed out. “This profile doesn’t sound correct to me.”

                “Really, Dr. Zimmerman? And why is that?”

                “Well, for starters, the way he handles his victims. It says here that the fact that he burns them could mean that he thinks he’s on some kind of a mission, to purify the world of the evil women represent, and while I agree that your profilers could have a point here, I don’t think that’s entirely correct. You see, he also drugs them and kills them in their sleep. That can suggest either the fact that he’s remorseful, or that he is too scared to face them when they are awake. Visionary killers aren’t normally like that. They think their mission was given to them by God so they don’t have any reasons to be afraid, or to feel guilty.”

                “And now you’re going to sell me the whole thing with he probably had an unhappy childhood and wet his bed as he was dreaming about fucking his mother?” Detective O’Donnell mocked him. “No offense, Zimmerman, but you may profile monsters, but I don’t see you profiling killers.”

                “Abnormals.” Will corrected him. “I stopped using the m word a long time ago.”

                “When your boss threatened she’d fire you if you continued using it?”

                “Something like that, yes.” Will laughed.

                “And you say the killer has mommy issues.”

                “It’s not like that. And it’s not your business anyway.”

                “As my case is not your business either.” Detective O’Donnell pointed out. “What do you say we all take care of our jobs and nothing more? I’m here if you need a guide through the city because I risk getting fired if I don’t help you, but that’s all there is to this, alright?”

                “Alright, no need to get unfriendly with us.” Will said, trying to make peace. “I just thought that maybe Sinead is going to target this arsonist as her next victim, that’s it. Which would make him our job too.”

                “You really think she will?”

                “What now I got your interest?” Will smiled. “It’s just a theory, but he is a killer, and you didn’t manage to catch him, so maybe she’ll step in and do your job.”

                “Great. So not only I have two nosy guys that get into my case, now I have to worry about dead people messing with it too?” Colin sighed. “You know, life was so much easier when I had no clue about this entire Sanctuary thing.”

                “Welcome to our life. But in time, you end up getting bored by the normal stuff, trust us.” Kate smiled.

* * *

                Susan’s life had never been the same since the night her mother had come to her house. She had barely known her mother and she could have counted the times when they had been together and she had been sober on the fingers of one hand. Still, there was a part of her that still loved her, that had tried to forgive her for leaving. But seeing her that night, with that mad man look on her face, gun pointed at her grandfather, the only one who had taken care of her…It should have killed every bit of love Susan had had for her mother, and it nearly did. She had found out recently that she had died and she couldn’t help feeling relieved for that. What kind of daughter did that make her? She didn’t know. The same kind of daughter that deserved a mother like Sinead perhaps.

                But still, when she finished her classes that day and saw her mother staying there, with a boy that was around her age, there was a part of her heart that exploded with joy. She got closer to her, as silently as she could, and heard her fighting with the boy.

                “This is where your daughter studies, isn’t it?” The boy asked.  “If Mother Maiden finds out about this…”

                “Oh, give the gal a break, brother. She just wants to see her family. We’d want that too if we had any family left.” The kid changed his voice again, making Sinead shiver. She still hadn’t got used to it.

                “Give her a break?” The boy was now yelling at somebody. “She’s just like our father. She let her addiction overpower her, make her forget about her duty as a mother, about the child she had the obligation to protect.”

                “I didn’t ask your opinion. Either of you.” Sinead screamed at him. “I loved my daughter.”

                “Mommy?” Susan asked, interrupting Sinead.

                “Yes.” She said as she practically ran to her daughter, wanting to take her in her arms. But what she saw on the little girl’s face broke her heart. She had been happy for a moment, but the happiness was soon replaced with horror and she backed off, not wanting to look at her mother anymore.

                “They said you were dead.”

                “Dead? Mommy is not dead, dear. She just…Left for some time, but now I came back for you. We can be together, just like before.”

                “You killed grandpa.” Her daughter’s voice had coldness in it that froze Sinead on the spot.

                “Yes but mommy didn’t want to do that. It was an accident”. Sinead said on a reassuring tone. “And believe me, I was punished for that a lot more than I deserved.”

                “And what about me? Who punished you for leaving me alone?”

                “I’m sorry, dear, but I swear I won’t do that again. I can make this better, I promise. It can be just the two of us against the world. What do you say?”

                “Who is the boy?” The girl asked, ignoring what her mother had said.

                “Hi. We’re friends of your mother. We’re dead. And she is too, unlike what she wants you to believe. No need to hide ourselves, Sinead.” He added when he saw her look. “I’m sure your daughter can handle the truth. You’ve lied to her enough when you were alive, why continue that now?”

                “Don’t listen to him.” Sinead pleaded. “A lot happened, and I can explain, but you have to come with me.”

                “No. I don’t know who you are, but you’re not my mother. You stopped being my mother the day you pulled that trigger. I hate you!” The girl screamed at her and she couldn’t fight back her tears anymore. This was her worst nightmare come true. Her daughter rejecting her like the monster she was. But in the end, she was right and there was nothing she could do about it. So she left like the coward she had always been. It seemed that death didn’t change much in the end…

                Susan was left alone in front of the school and she burst out in tears. Did she really have to be so cruel? Her mother had her flaws, yes, huge ones, but she was the only one who she had left.

                “You did well, Susan. I know it hurts, but it had to be done.” The little girl felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder and let herself cuddle a bit in the arms of her teacher.

                “Is she dead, Mr. Coghlan?” She whispered.

                “My dear Susan. I told you. She died the night she killed your father. The rest are only details, and I promise I’ll teach you how to fix them, in time. But for now, you’re better off without her. Now, do you want to come over to my house? I just got a new history book and I think you’ll love it.”

                It took her a while to agree, but, in the end, Mr Coghlan had been the one who had always helped her. Since he came as a substitute teacher, History had become her favorite subject, but it wasn’t just that. No, Mr. Coghlan understood her like nobody had. So when she took his hand and got to his house, she couldn’t help a little tingle of happiness creeping into her heart.


	22. The Other Half (Of Me)

                Normally, missions like this were a piece of cake to her. Get in, find the son of a bitch, take his neck, drink his blood and go for the next one. But this was her first mission without Mother Maiden’s support and she couldn’t help wondering if she was doing the right thing. She was going to kill him anyway; she knew that, so why wait? Why wait for him to become guilty of a crime everybody knew he was going to commit anyway? _Because maybe he is a good guy_. A voice rang in her head, but she quickly dismissed it. She knew the age he was coming from all too well and there hadn’t been that many good guys back then.

                But still, she couldn’t take any chances. So, after giving the idea some thought, she decided she had to go in. Not completely, of course, and not officially, because from what she could gather about her she was almost sure Helen would have never accepted a bodyguard, but she would have most likely taken in a patient, a poor lost girl that needed her help. Problem was, how to gain her trust? The idea hit her in a flicker of a second. Of course. Always target the weakest link. Helen would have probably never listened to her anyway, but the kid… Yeah, he seemed good enough.

* * *

                “Helen, we need to talk.” Sharon said as she entered Helen’s office.

                “Did you come to say goodbye?”

                “Goodbye?” She asked, not understanding it for a moment. But then she got it. This was the day she was supposed to leave. This was the day she would have left if she had been a little smarter. But apparently, she wasn’t smart enough.

                “Actually, no.” She sighed. “I gave it some thought and I decided to stay some more, if that’s ok with you. Maybe I can help you with your case or something like that. I may not be Mother Maiden, but I still dream about stuff and well. If you want me I’m here, that’s all I’m saying.”

                Helen couldn’t help a wistful smile when she heard that. It had taken her a while, but she decided she liked her. OK, she was a bit weird and her music was different, but she was… interesting, to say the least.

                “Can I ask you what made you change your mind?” She asked finally.

                “Can I not answer that? You will say I’m crazy if I do and let’s just say I prefer you to be the crazier of the two of us.”

                “Sharon, I built the Sanctuary more than a century ago. It would take me ages to tell you about all the things I’ve seen here, but do you really think there is something left that can surprise me?”

                “I dreamt about Mother Maiden last night.” Sharon admitted. “Well, I don’t even know if dream is the most proper word. It felt real. More real than everything I dreamt about lately.”

                “Did you talk to her in your dream?”

                “Yes. She was in a library, just like the one I pictured her in, and she had all these books and every book was about someone else. I found my book, and I saw how it writes herself as I carried on. Just as if I was literally writing my own destiny. And I don’t know. Maybe I figured if I am writing my own destiny, I might just well make it a good story. It sounds stupid, doesn’t it?” Sharon asked. “Maybe I really went crazy.”

                “I’m not a fan of that word either.” Helen smiled. “All I can say, Sharon, is that it makes sense to me.”

                “No offense, but you are a-“

                “276 years old woman that takes care of monsters and sleeps with a vampire so me saying you are sane doesn’t help you too much?”

                “Well I wouldn’t be so harsh about it, but yes. No offense.”

                “None taken. What about your family, your songs?”

                “I thought about them too.” Sharon smiled sadly. “What if the point of me having these dreams is that I have a part to play in all of this? For all I know, they might never stop if I don’t do whatever I’m supposed to do, and frankly I don’t know if I can take them anymore. Not in my normal life. My family and my fans love me, but they… they don’t get crazy like you do. So I’ll stay here a bit, see if the dreams stop, maybe you can find a way to help me with them in the mean time and then I’ll go back to them and pretend nothing happened.”

                “And you got the ideas for your next album out of nowhere like you always do.”

                “Something like that, yes. That is, if you’ll allow me to write about this place.”

                “Nobody is going to buy the story anyway.” Helen shrugged. “If it inspires you, go ahead.”

                “OK then. Now I talked to Nikola last night and he told me there is this case he’s been working on, the one with the vampire kid that supposedly survived an explosion.”

                “The one who was treated by what was his name…Doctor Walton, or something like that. I remember Nikola mentioning that, but I was too busy with Mother Maiden to help him.”

                “He said the same thing. But my theory is that this is about her too.”

                “Why would Mother Maiden save a vampire? They’re not exactly friendly people.” Helen asked and Sharon couldn’t help her heart jumping a beat.

                “That’s what I said too! But of course, Nikola was…”

                “He doesn’t like kids being smarter than him.” Helen smiled. “Don’t take it personally. Now, are you sure she is behind this?”

                “Yes. I think somebody, probably doctor Walton, created these vampires- I have no idea how but my guess is that you are better than me at that- and that it went wrong so he destroyed the lab, trying to cover up everything. It is said that the explosion was caused by nitroglycerine, and I get that Walton wasn’t such a good doctor, but how dumb can you be to toy with nitroglycerine?”

                “Unless you want to make it explode. It makes sense. But how do you know that he created them?”

                “From the nightmare we created, I want to be awaken right now. I know it’s crazy, but you promised you won’t judge and-“

                “The _Howling_.” Helen said.

                “You’ve been listening to my songs.” Sharon smiled. “Long enough for you to learn the lyrics.”

                “Of course I have. I had to, you know, to figure out if you are-“

                “A 600 old years old crazy woman that brings the dead back. I almost feel offended.”

                “Well as long as it’s only almost. Not like you liked me at first anyway.”

                “I’m still not sure if I do now.” Sharon admitted. “You’re still a bit too abnormal for me to digest.”

                “Likewise. Now, are you willing to carry on with your theory?”

                “Well the girl is obviously on the streets. I don’t know about the others, but-“

                “The others?”

                “I feel _them_ getting closer.” Sharon explained. “For Heaven’s sake, I just said that as if it would explain anything.”

                “Maybe it does. Go on.” Helen encouraged her.

                “Well point is, the chances she survived that explosion are pretty low, so Mother Maiden probably brought her back. Which means she is changing. Maybe she needs more powerful soldiers, who knows? I don’t want to defend her, but she is a good lady at heart, so if she brings back mon- dangerous beings I mean-, my guess is she fears something.”

                “Like she is preparing a war or something like that?”

                “Yes.”

                “Against whom?”

                “That should be our main concern, Helen.” Sharon argued. “If someone or something is scaring Mother Maiden, I don’t think we should stay to see what it is and do nothing.”

                “Are you suggesting we help her?”

                “I’m suggesting we send her a message, asking if she needs our help. I don’t know how we could help her, but we can at least try. I know you’re not a big fan of hers, but…”

                “Her servants kill people, Sharon. I can’t forgive that.”

                “Her servants kill killers. Do you really think killers are people, that they deserve the same treatment as the others? I’m not for killing them either, but I think we could say that Mother Maiden has a point. At least you could say that, because of what you’ve been through.”

                “You have no idea what I’ve been through.” Helen said coldly.

                “I’m just saying that you should stop trying to save killers in hope that you’ll make things right with John, that’s all. You have nothing to fix. I don’t know how it ended between you two guys, but you’re not guilty for anything, got it?”

                “You do realize you’re not the first to tell me this.” Helen sighed.

                “But maybe I’ll be the first you listen to. You can’t let the past haunt you forever, especially since you have forever.”

                “Doc, sorry to interrupt, but you have to see this.” Henry said, bursting in.

                “What happened?” Helen asked as she ran after him, barely able to keep up the pace.

                “I went out and this girl got to me and she seemed injured so I tried to help her, obviously. Thing is, she knows my name.”

                “Have you seen her before?”

                “No, that’s the thing. She just came to me and called my name, asking me to help her, to get her inside and well, I couldn’t have ignored that right? I know she could be dangerous but-“

                “Is she beautiful?” Sharon asked and that’s when they noticed she had tagged along.

                “Don’t look at me like that, you said I could help.” she said defensively.

                “She is attractive, I won’t deny it, but I’m almost married so no thanks. But well. See for yourself.” Saying this he opened the door to his laboratory and everybody saw a woman who seemed to be around her 30s watching them. She felt awfully familiar to Sharon, like she had seen her before somewhere, but she couldn’t place it at first.

                “Which one of you is Dr. Magnus?” The woman asked.

                “That would be me. And you are…”

                “Katherine. But you can call me Kate. I’m sorry to bust in like this, but I need your help.”

                Normally Helen would have been a little more reserved, but she noticed the woman seemed hurt so she decided to ask questions later.

                “You’ll have to excuse me for a moment, Sharon. Katherine needs my help.”

                “No problem.” The singer answered but her mind seemed to be somewhere else. “Just make sure she is kept warm. She looks like she’s... freezing.”

                “Sharon, is there something you want to tell me?” Helen asked when she saw her look.

                “Actually… No. I’m sure it can wait. Take care of your patient.” She answered and Helen listened to her, not noticing the way Katherine’s head gave the slightest of nods.


	23. Deceiver of Fools

                “Sinead, wait!” The boy was running after her but she wasn’t listening anymore. How could they be so cruel, destroying every chance she ever had with her daughter? And to think Mother Maiden wanted her to work with them!

                “Listen, my brother is an idiot sometimes, I’m sorry, no, we’re sorry for it.”

                “Leave me alone! I don’t know how in God’s name she thought we are going to work together, but clearly, it was a mistake, so why don’t you do us a favor and get the fuck out of my way before somebody ends up killed?”

                “We need to work together, Sinead. I know you don’t like this, but it’s our only chance to be free again.” The boy pleaded.

                “Really? And who decided that? Mother Maiden? I wish she’d have let me to die. Hell would have been easier to stand than this.”

                “But you’re not dead, Sinead, and neither are we. We have a chance to make things right, so we might as well just take it and-“

                “No. Listen, kid. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I tried to work with you, guys, but what you did to me, what you did to my daughter… I can never forgive you for this.”

                “Well, actually, it was also your fault. It’s not like you’ve been an ideal mother when you were alive.”

                “Will you shut up? I’m trying to convince the gal here. You’re not helping, you-“The boy wasn’t able to finish his sentence because Sinead grabbed him by his neck, trying to choke him.

                “Leave.me.alone.” She said, stressing every word. “Leave me alone, or I swear I will find a way to kill you.”

                “Fine. But for the record, if she finds out about this, it’s your fault.” The boy said and she let him go and then turned around and left. She didn’t know where she was going, but one thing was sure. She wasn’t going to work for Mother Maiden anymore. There had to be more pleasant ways to spend your afterlife.    

* * *

                Boredom had never been a thing for Kate, that was for sure. But since Sinead had taken some days off and she was nowhere to be found, she figured she could take some hours of her free time and investigate the Boston arsonist’s case. Of course, Colin had made a point that they were not to interfere in that, but she had never had a healthy relationship with rules anyway. Not to mention that there was a part of her that wanted to give Colin a lesson about how foreign girls could actually be helpful in solving cases that arrogant detectives couldn’t. Of course, that had nothing to do with the fact that she hated the guy’s guts… Or did she?

                There was something about the case that didn’t click. Granted, she wasn’t as good as a profiler as Will was, but she knew about killers. She had been one, in a way, and Will was right. This wasn’t your regular killer with mommy issues that wanted to deliver the world of all evil, oh no. He seemed to be a lot smarter than that. He was a coward, that was for sure, because nobody killed women like he did if they had the guts to face them, but he also seemed to be easy to trust. The killer had been on the news, so no girl in her right mind would ever hitchhike again, if she didn’t know that the one who took her was to be trusted. Wait. Could it be? _Really, Kate, this is one of the most stupid theories you’ve ever come up with._ Her mind scolded her. But still, her instincts had never been wrong before, so she decided giving it a shot. Of course, she couldn’t tell Will about it, because he would have said it was a stupid idea and that it was just a waste of time, but she was going to do just fine on her own.

* * *

 

                “That was quite a show there, Miss Harkin.” A man said and Sinead turned around in surprise. She couldn’t have said for how long she had been running, from her responsibilities, from Mother Maiden, from everything death meant, but this man calling for her brought her back to her senses, even if only for a moment.

                “Who are you?” She asked on a small voice. “If she sent you after me, if you’re one of her little soldiers, you can tell her I’m not interested. Not anymore. And if she wants to kill me for that, she’s welcome to do it.”

                “Such hatred. It’s so sad.” The man said and Sinead glanced at him for the first time. There was something odd about him, about his voice. He was a handsome man, she couldn’t deny that, with his dark hair and those green eyes that seemed to see deep in her soul, or whatever she had left deep inside her, but it was his voice that caught her attention. It was calm and soothing and it somehow reminded her of the way her father used to put her to sleep when she was little. When she wasn’t the monster that she was today.

                “Who are you?”

                “I’m afraid that’s a story for another day, Miss Harkin. Let’s just say I’m a History teacher that has a very talented student. Susan Harkin, I believe you know her?”

                “My daughter.”

                “Yes. I only met her at the beginning of this semester, but I have to say, she is incredibly gifted for someone so young. And given the fact that her father was well, not the smartest person around, I can only assume she takes it from you.”

                “How did you find me?”

                “I have my talents.” The man said with a smile. “The real question, Sinead, is what I can do to help you. You and your daughter, that is. It has come to my attention that you two don’t get along so well, and I can’t blame her for that. You were, after all, what she could call a monster. But I hate to see that one of my best students suffers as much as your daughter does."

                “Well I’m sorry but I don’t really think we are the kind of problem that can be solved with counseling. I appreciate it, really, but I doubt there is anything that can be done for us, Mr…”

                “Coghlan. And why exactly don’t you think you and your daughter still have a chance? Because you’re dead?”

                “What?”

                “Oh, yes, I know about your little problem, Sinead.”

                “And you didn’t run away and didn’t bring out your cross. Why? What stops me from jumping at your neck?”

                “Because I am a good guy, Sinead, and you don’t eat good guys.”

                “That was before. I don’t work for the crazy hag anymore so I guess I could choose to change my diet, if necessary.”

                “Good. You’re learning.”

                “What?”

                “That Cassandra doesn’t control you. Just because she brought you back to life, if you can even call this living, it doesn’t mean she has the right to tell you what to do.”

                “Cassandra?”

                “She never told you that was her real name, did she?”

                “Mother Maiden?”

                “I liked her more when she was just Cassandra, but yes.”

                “Wait. If you know her, than are you…”

                “Old? Yes. Dead? Well, that part is a bit more complicated. I was like you once, Sinead. The difference is I had the courage to break free from her spell. I realized that, unlike what she thought, she doesn’t control me. And not that I would want to brag or something, but I think I mastered the afterlife thing more than she did. After all, I am only a few years younger than her and well, I look pretty good for my age.”

                “So you’re saying she could look like this too but she chooses not to?”

                “I’m saying she has done a lot of mistakes in her life and they have taken their toll on her. You see, she is not exactly the boss of the undead. I’m not either. The thing is, we both have to answer to the same boss- I met him once or twice and he is a nice guy, even if he has his bad moments-, but let’s just say that he didn’t approve of something Mother Maiden did once. So he took part of her powers away and that’s why she grows old, even if a lot slower than normally, and I don’t.”

                “Whatever. I don’t care about that so much. What I care about, though, is what the heck do you want from my daughter. I swear if you lay a single hand on her-“

                “There is no need to threaten me, Sinead.” The man said on a peaceful tone. “Me and Cassandra, well, we have different views, that is for sure, but we also have different tasks. We’re both a necessarily evil, if you’d wish. You see, she brings people back from the dead, people who regret what they had done, and makes them work for her. Now how does that help the idea of greater good? I can’t say exactly, but since she was left alone after all the trouble she had caused, I guess she is somehow useful, in the end.”

                “Wait. Trouble?”

                “Yes. You know Katherine, right?”

                “I’ve met her, yes. She’s her most valued servant.” Sinead said and to this the man puffed in disgust.

                “She has been completely brainwashed. Don’t you see? This is where Cassandra exaggerates. The deal is that she lets you guys go after you’ve done your share. But Katherine has completed her share a long time ago. And she is still here. The thing with Cassandra is that, sometimes, she gets too attached of people and refuses to let them go. So she brainwashes them, tells them that she is all they have and keeps them forever by her side.”

                “And what’s your role in this exactly?”

                “I don’t deal with the dead, Sinead. I deal with the living. With the ones you lot left behind, the ones that you hurt. Just like her daughter. I try to make them come to peace with you and what you’ve done, so you can move on, go into the light, like you’re supposed to.”

                “But I don’t deserve it.”

                “That’s what you all say. But the truth is, how do you know that? Did you ask anybody? I mean, besides Cassandra, who well. Let’s just say she can’t be fully trusted.”

                “You’ve seen the way my daughter looks at me.”

                “But that can be changed, Sinead. If you’d only let me. Now I know what you’re going to say. Why should you trust me? Your past experiences with people that control the fallen ones haven’t been so smooth, and I get that. The thing is, Sinead, you don’t have to trust me. The only thing you need to trust is your heart. Where does she tell you to go?”

                “My daughter.” Sinead whispered. “She is the only thing that ever mattered to me.”

                “Good. Then close your eyes and think about her.” The man told her and she listened to him.

                “Are you thinking about her?”

                “Yes.”

                “Good. Because there is someone here who wants to see you.” The man said with a smile.

                “Mommy?” A voice called Sinead and for the first time since she had been awoken, her life made sense again.


	24. Ice Queen

                “I was wondering how long it will take you to come and see me.” Katherine greeted Sharon with a smile when she entered her room. It took her a bit of convincing, but Helen had decided to give her a room for the night. She was still suspicious, of course, and it wasn’t like the way Sharon looked at her helped. “Really subtle, by the way. I look like I am _freezing_? I expected you to have more imagination, Sharon. You disappoint me.”

                “I still don’t know why I didn’t blow your cover up for the record.” Maybe because she expected Helen to figure  it out herself, maybe because a part of her had hoped that Mother Maiden had sent her with a message to her, something that would have helped her make sense of all this mess, or maybe she was simply too surprised to finally see her to say anything.

                “That makes two of us. But seriously, Helen may have listened to your songs, but she doesn’t know them as well as you hoped. What was mine? _Frozen?_ It didn’t ring a bell to her, sadly.”

                “Is it all true?” It was the only thing she could ask at the moment. Until then, there had been a part of her that had hoped that it was all just a huge coincidence and that it had nothing to do with her, or her songs, but all had faded when she first saw Katherine. She was just like she had imagined her. The woman who had murdered her husband after he had raped her daughter. She tried hard to think how she had got the idea for that. Maybe she had read it in an old newspaper or something like that. Not to mention that it was some kind of a cliché anyway. So maybe, just maybe…

                “Sorry to disappoint, but yes.”

                “Did she send you?”

                “Who? Mother Maiden? No. She doesn’t know I’m here.”

                “You ran away.” Sharon said, realizing the implications of this. If Mother Maiden’s servants had began betraying her… Katherine seemed nice, but if the others found out… She didn’t want to imagine how bad it could get.

                “Something like that, yes.”

                “Why?”

                “Remind me again why I’m answering all these questions? You know I could kill you any minute.”

                “But I’m still alive. And I thought you people only kill bad guys.”

                “That’s why I ran away, actually.” Katherine admitted.

                “Why are you here, Katherine?”

                “The same reason you are, even if you don’t realize it now. You see, Sharon, we both know something bad is going to happen. We both know who will be responsible for it. And we both know that if we tell Helen she will tell us both to go to hell. I am well aware of that. So this is why I’m here. To do what you don’t have the resources to do.”

                “You want to kill him?”

                “It’s more complicated than just killing, what I do, but if you want to be blunt about it, yes.”

                “You do realize he’s…”

                “Has to be a way.” Katherine shrugged. “But I find it curious how you didn’t comment about me killing him. Mother Maiden said something along the lines of we can’t punish somebody for a crime he hasn’t committed yet. I took off.”

                “Well if you want my opinion on the matter…”

                “I don’t, actually. Well, not quite. You’re weak, you’re mortal, why would I want anything to do with you? But as weird as it may sound, I think I owe you one.”

                “No offense, but you’re what? 100 years old?”

                “Can you still talk about age after you die? And I know what you’re wondering. How could somebody so old possibly owe something to a woman who isn’t even 40 yet. Trust me, when I first heard out about you, when she told me that you dream about us, I thought you are some freak. I still do. But the thing is, in a way, you helped us. I’ve lived all my life thinking I was a monster for what I’ve done, and so did a friend of mine. Her name was Rose Hansen. You don’t know her, of course, because she died long before you were born, but she was very much like me in a way. Her husband was a serial killer who made her choose his next victims. I’ve been through hell myself, but I can’t even imagine what that feels like. And one day, she killed him. Set herself free. And what did society do? What it always does.”

                “They blamed her.”

                “Exactly. And her last wish was that someone, sometime, would try to find out the truth about her. And yeah, I get that you probably didn’t know it back then, but you were that someone to her.”

                “ _The Truth Beneath the Rose_.” Sharon laughed. “Most people think it’s about the crusades. I had no idea what it is about, until today.”

                “You’re welcome. Now about my little quest here…”

                “I am not the one who can tell you what to do, Katherine. But I would listen to Mother Maiden if I were you. It doesn’t seem fair. I mean, think about it. What would have happened if somebody had killed you because they could tell you were going to murder your husband? He would have got away with your daughter, with nobody left to stop him.” Sharon pointed out.

                “She doesn’t deserve to die, Sharon. You don’t know her, but I’ve watched over her since she was young. She is like a sister to me. I can’t let her die.”

                “She’s more than a sister. She is you, in a way. That’s why you care so much about her. But you do realize that if you kill him, she’ll never forgive you.”

                “Maybe she doesn’t have to. You see, the idea of us serving Mother Maiden is that when we feel ready, when we feel that we’ve done enough justice, we can move on. Go into the light or whatever is out there, you know? I was never able to do that. She always kept saying I did my share, that I can leave, but I couldn’t. Not while she’s around. And of course, there is a part of Mother Maiden that can’t wait for her to die, but I’ll be damned if I give her that satisfaction. She has me, and I will have to do. Helen doesn’t deserve any of this. And, in the end, who knows? Maybe if I protect her I’ll finally feel that I did my job here and I’ll be able to move on.”

                “To hell.”

                “Probably. But I’ve already been there. There are different kinds of hell, Sharon. Seeing your daughter growing up hating you, as worms eat your flesh and you can practically feel every inch of you decomposing, is probably the worst. I think I can take any type of hell after that.”

                “Is this supposed to make us friends?”

                “Friends? Don’t let it go to your head. Let’s say we’re allies, and by allies I mean you’ll stay right here and you won’t say a word to anybody about our little chat. This isn’t a fight for someone so young, Sharon.”

                “Then why does this keep coming back to me, to my songs?” Sharon asked on a desperate tone. ”I asked her the same question, when I was in her library, but she didn’t know or didn’t want to answer. And I’m sick of everybody patronizing me.”

                “You’ve been in Mother Maiden’s library?”

                “Yes. Well, I dreamt about it, but- What?” Sharon asked when she saw Katherine’s look.

                “You’re the first living person who ever entered that library. She always keeps saying that nobody alive can go there.”

                “Well sorry to disappoint, but I’m alive.” Sharon said grimly. “Maybe she lied to you.”

                “I have to go. Don’t tell Helen about any of this, are we clear?” Katherine said but before Sharon had any chance to answer she disappeared, living her even more confused than she had already been.

* * *

                He had started to feel it a few days before. A feeling that was so old to him that he’d almost forgot how it felt like. But there was a part of him that remembered it. It was the same feeling he had had when his brother had died in his arms, the same feeling that made him know his mother had died even if she had been thousands of miles away from him. Only this time, it was for him. This time, death was targeting him and there was a part of him that was grateful for it.

                If he thought about it, death had never scared him. Dying was something normal. What really scared him though was dying without living anything behind, and he had spent a lot of time trying to avoid that. Giving up everything for the only thing that had mattered to him. Science. He used to say that there is nothing that can be compared to the thrill that an inventor feels when he sees a creation of his brain unfolding to success, that such thrill is capable to make a man forget everything. Sleep, friends, food, love, everything. Of course, the last two had proven to be a problem, especially after events, after meeting Helen and becoming a vampire made them one and the same thing, but somehow he managed to do it. Until now. But lately hunger had begun growing stronger inside him and he didn’t know how much he was going to be able to keep holding it back.

                “Nikola Tesla.” Katherine said coldly as she entered his laboratory. “Don’t ever think about alerting someone. I can kill you and disappear before anybody comes to your rescue.

                “Who are you?” Nikola asked defensively.

                “Not important. You know, it’s funny. Your electricity killed me once and now I come to kill you. It’s almost poetic, in a way.”

                “Katherine Meadows. I was wondering if you’re going to visit. If this is an offer to join Mother Maiden, tell her I’m too alive for her. Oh, and I already have an old gal to look after, so yeah, not interested.”

                “Actually, this isn’t about her offers. It’s about my offer. And it sounds like this. Leave now and maybe I’ll let you live.”

                “What?”

                “You’re going to kill Helen. I can’t let you do that. So I figured I could kill you before. And don’t give me the vampire crap. I am already dead, so good luck defending yourself from me. We can fight for all eternity, if this is what it takes to keep you away from her, but she is going to live.”

                “Wait, wait, wait. I love her. Why would I kill her?”

                “Simply put? Because you’re a man. And I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at her lately. You’ve always wanted her, and well, I get that she wants you too and that there has always been a lot of lust between you two, but this is different, isn’t it? All those feelings you’ve kept harbored for so long. You say you love her, but you forget about the rest. About the way she treated you all those years. About how she fucked all her colleagues before finally getting to you only because she didn’t have anybody left. About how she knew damn well what it took to bring you back when you almost died but she didn’t, because she couldn’t give up a few drops of her blood to save you.”

                “I thought you were on her side.” Nikola said dryly.

                “I am. But loving her means overlooking all of this. And you’d better be able to do it. You’ve been warned.”

                “Or what?” Nikola challenged her. To this, she got closer to him and whispered on a threatening tone _Or I’ll rip your head off_. And for a second, he could feel death’s wings fluttering over him.


	25. Caged

                “You know, I’m starting to wonder how much this will cost me.” Sinead told Mr. Coghlan. She may have not known a lot about the afterlife, but she had learned one thing: there were no favors. And still, there she was, in a park with her daughter, the two of them closer than ever before… She had thought that having her daughter back would change everything, would make her forget that she was dead, but it didn’t happen. It felt too good to be true, and in a way, maybe it was. “What’s in it for you?” She continued when Mr. Coghlan didn’t answer.

                “How much _what_ will cost you? Spending time with your daughter? Consider it’s on the house.” Mr. Coghlan grinned. “We’re not all blackmailers here.”

                “Mommy? Are you OK? You seem… Lost.” Susan said as she took her mother’s hand into her own. “I’m sorry for what I said to you, really. I know I shouldn’t have been so harsh about it. Mr. Coghlan explained everything to me, he told me that you were gone but you came back for me and that I should appreciate it because I have no idea what you risked to be with me.”

                “He did?”

                “Yes. He’s a good guy, you know.”

                “So he seems.” Sinead approved. “I still don’t know how this afterlife business works entirely, but…”

                “You can trust him, mommy. I promise you. And you shouldn’t feel sorry for the kids.”

                “How do you know about the kids?” Sinead asked suspiciously. “I never told you about them.”

                “I saw you with them, remember?”

                “No. You saw me with _one_. How do you know there is more than one?”

                “I have no idea. Mr. Coghlan must have mentioned it. Why are you so angry about it?” She could barely hear her daughter anymore. She had forgotten completely about her mission, about the fact that she was supposed to help them. Of course, they were insufferable brats that had almost destroyed every chance she had had with her daughter, but there was still a part of her that felt guilty about leaving them behind.

                “I was supposed to help the kid, the kids, whatever, with something. And now, I’m here. And I forgot about everything.”

                “But it’s good, right?” Susan asked , still holding her mother’s hand. “You’re with me. It’s all that matters. After all, if you had helped them, you would have been free and then you would have come to me anyway, right? This is what Mr. Coghlan allowed you to do, too. Only that with him you could… take a shortcut. Or something like that. I’m little, mommy. Don’t expect me to get the whole afterlife thing better than you do.”

                “Shouldn’t you be scared? You used to be scared of me when I was alive. What changed now? You know of my… condition.”

                “You may be dead, mother, but you are awake.” Susan smiled sadly. “I don’t know how many times I’ve seen you awake when you were alive. And anyway, Mr. Coghlan said that you should trust him. He’s done this before, freed a lot of people from her. He’s some kind of a hero.”

                “Is he now? And who decides that? You’re too little to fully get the whole idea of good and evil, Susie, but think a little. How are we supposed to know who the good guys and the bad guys are in all this mess?”

                “I can still hear you, you know.” Mr Coghlan said amused.

                “Well you can’t blame me for not trusting you.”

                “Of course not. As your daughter told you, you’re not the first one I took from Cassandra. I didn’t have any complaints until now though. But tell me Susan, how do you know I’m a good guy?”

                “I don’t know.” Susan admitted. “But I’ll tell you what I know. I know that waking up people from the dead, promising them a new life and not allowing them to see their family is wrong. I also know that keeping those people busy with stupid stuff that prevents them from seeing their only daughter is again wrong. And I also know that not getting your daughter some ice cream when you’ve just recently come back from the dead is again wrong.” She said with a grin. “You still like chocolate?”

                “Yes.” Sinead lied. Actually, she liked blood more now, but that was clearly not a topic that she could discuss with her daughter, so she let it at that. After all, even if she was being played with this, Susan was still her daughter and she was still spending time with her. The rest should have been unimportant…

* * *

                “So what you’re telling me is that Sinead left?” Mother Maiden asked and the boy nodded, trembling. He had expected her to be a lot angrier than that, but the only thing that he could read on her face was regret. Not anger, just a lot of regret and sorrow. And somehow, it hurt a lot more than her just being angry at them. She was disappointed.

                “She went to see her daughter. I tried- we tried to stop her, tell her that you’re going to be angry at her, we even tried showing her that her daughter would never accept her as she is now, but nothing worked. And now she’s angry at all of us.”

                “This is his doing.” Mother Maiden sighed. “I should have known he was going to target her. He always had a thing for girls. _My_ girls. I tried teaming you up to make sure that it doesn’t happen, but he won anyway. First Kate, now Sinead… He knows I’m about to get reinforcements and he wants me to lose my confidence. Smart guy.”

                “Whose doing?”

                “An old friend of mine. You don’t know him. Pray that you never will.” Mother Maiden warned the child. “But now, to business. We may have lost a battle, but the war is still going. There is somebody who can bring her back to us. That doctor. What was his name?”

                “Zimmy something? But he’s alive. And I don’t think he’s such a fan of us.”

                “I never said we’re going to ask his help. I still have a few aces up my sleeve. But you have to continue working on the case. The arsonist. If I’m right, Sinead will want to help really soon with that.”

* * *

 

                “How’s the ice cream, Mommy?” Susan asked and Sinead sighed. What could she possibly say? The truth? That the ice cream didn’t have any taste to her, but the guy that was strolling alone in the par, a few meters from them, looked delicious, and not in a sexual way? “I’ve tasted better. But I guess it’s not bad.”

                “Well, since you two are having so much fun, I guess I’ll leave now.” Mr. Coghlan said. “You’re better off without me. I’ll keep in touch, OK?”

                “Thank you. For everything.” Sinead smiled at him. “I’m sorry for everything I thought about you. You have some courage leaving me alone on the streets.”

                “You’ll do just fine.” He answered on an encouraging tone before leaving and for a moment Sinead really believed that everything was well in the world. She was going to have to find a way to quench her thirst, but until then, everything was well. She was with her daughter, and nothing else- Wait. Where was her daughter? She had been there a moment before, but now she was gone.

                Sinead ran desperately through the park, trying to find her. No. This couldn’t have happened. If somebody had kidnapped her, he was going to pay for this with his life.

                “Susan, where are you?” she cried in despair, but nobody answered. And then, she saw her. Just a few meters further, talking with a boy that was about her age. and she couldn’t help a smile. This was going to be a great way to scare her daughter’s future boyfriends. _Leave her alone or I will drink your blood._ Well. At least he wasn’t dangerous. Or at least, that was what she had thought at first. But a closer look proved her how wrong she had been. She knew the boy. Great. So Mother Maiden was now targeting her daughter as well.

                “Susan, stay away from him!” Sinead yelled, running to her daughter. She grabbed the boy by his neck and shook him. “I thought I warned you about this.” she hissed. “Tell her I’m done with her.”

                “Mommy, leave him alone!” Susan pleaded. “He has done nothing wrong.”

                “Susan, I’m sorry, but me and the boy need to have a little chat. Nobody is going to hurt me, I promise.”

                “I’m not worried about you, mother, it’s him I’m worried about!”

                “But you know him! You’ve seen me with him before. He’s come to take me back.”

                “What are you doing with my son?! Leave him alone! Help!” A woman screamed, startling Sinead. It was then when she saw that the boy wasn’t one of the triplets. How could she possibly make that mistake?” “I’m- I’m sorry.” she stuttered. “I thought…” but she couldn’t think of any plausible explanation, so she ran away as fast as she could, begging that nobody calls the police. She had barely time to see the boy safe back in his mother’s arms when she noticed that her daughter was also running away from her..

                “Hey! I’m sorry, mommy didn’t want to scare you!” She cried after her but her daughter ignored her. “Come back!”

                “No, mother.” Susan replied as she ran as fast as she could and got out in the street. “I tried being nice, because that’s what Mr. Coghlan had told me, but you’re still the same. You never want to hurt anyone, but people keep dying around you. I can’t stand it anymore. I’m sorry.” She yelled back at her mother, not caring how much of it she was able to hear.

                “Susie, no! I’ve changed, I can prove it to you!” This stopped Susan on her trails, just before a crossroad. “You’re not my mother anymore. You’re nothing but a monster. And I know that this is the only way I can get away from you.” It was the last thing she said before she stepped on the road and a car hit her.

                “Susan!” Sinead cried, jumping next to her daughter. The cars had stopped, blocking the traffic, but it was too late for her daughter. Sinead held her, crying over her body as she felt life leaving her. No. This couldn’t have been real. She had just seen her daughter again, and now this? It wasn’t possible. It had to be just a dream she was going to wake up from really fast. So she waited, but nothing happened. People had gathered around her, watching her and a man tried to comfort her, but she wasn’t hearing anything anymore. And what was worse was that she couldn’t even stay there with her daughter. If the police came, or the ambulance, they would have found out that she didn’t have a pulse, and then… And then, what? She didn’t know, but she sure as hell didn’t want to stay and find out.

                “Sinead, let’s leave.” She heard a voice whisper and saw Mr. Coghlan.

                “Bring her back. I beg you. I’ll do anything.” She pleaded, hope creeping in her voice again. He seemed to be in some control of the afterlife, so maybe he could help her, maybe… But he shook his head in denial. “I’m sorry, Sinead. I can’t do that.”

                “But you promised she’ll be safe!”

                “Actually, I didn’t. I only said you’ll get to spend time with her. How much… Well. We didn’t quite negotiate that did we?” He smirked at her.

                “You. You did this. You killed her!”

                “Actually, my dear… you’ll find out that it was you who killed her. I only… helped a bit.”

                “I’ll make you pay for this.”

                “Good luck with that. Send my regards to Cassie if you see her.” The man laughed and then left, leaving Sinead crying alone.


	26. Silver Moonlight

                “This doesn't make any sense.” Helen thought as she looked over the files again. A contact in Mexico had sent her some files they had been able to recover from Doctor Walton's hard drive, but none of them seemed helpful, except an MP3 file...

                “Helen, we need to talk.” Nikola said as he entered her office. There’s this girl that Henry brought in, Katherine…”

                “What girl, Nikola? Oh. Katherine as in Katherine the revenant? The one who is in Mother’s Maiden gang but somehow came to us?”

                “You knew.” Nikola said surprised.

                “Of course I did, don’t be silly.” Helen said dismissively. “The girl had the nerve to think she can trick me into thinking she’s a poor lost girl that needs help.”

                “Maybe she is.”

                “Yes, but she forgot to mention that she has no pulse. I know when somebody doesn’t have a working circulatory system, you know. Doctor, remember?”

                “Makes one wonder why you stuck around Johnny so much.” Nikola laughed. “What don’t give me that look. I doubt that anything in his blood worked properly.”

                “I’m not discussing this.”

                “Alright. Then can we discuss the fact that she threatened to kill me?”

                “What?” Helen asked, worry creeping in her voice. “Why would she want to kill you? You’re not the kind they normally target.”

                “That’s what I told her. But it seems that she feels threatened by the fact that I am a vampire. Or, more precisely, she thinks I’m threatening you.”

                “She wants to protect me?”

                “Well, she did say that she will… what were her words? Ah, yes. Rip my head off if I lay a singer finger on you. I hope she only meant that in the aggressive way of the phrase, because my fingers well. I would hate them to miss you just because some crazy 100 years old chick is threatening me. Speaking of which…” He said as his voice got that lower tone that was able to make her knees melt.

                “Now?”

                “Well it’s not like I have anything better to do.” He whispered against her neck. “Besides, you need to relax from time to time.”

                “And you call sleeping with you _relaxing_? After all this time? Please.”

                “I never heard you complaining.” He smirked as his lips found hers. But his mind couldn’t stop wandering as he kissed her. What did she taste like? Her lips were delicious, of course, but the blood underneath them, well he had no idea. And it killed him. All it took was a small bite, just a little scratch beneath the surface and he would find- no. They had had this talk before and she had been pretty clear that she doesn’t want any of it. Her loss. Actually, more like his loss, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Or was it? No. He wasn’t going there.

                “I’ll leave you to work, Helen.” He whispered as their lips parted. “If you need something, anything… just call.”

                “Alright.” She said, unable to hold back the disappointment in her voice. Something was off with him, but she couldn’t place it just yet. “What do you make of this, Nikola?” she asked as she showed him a file from her computer. “This was among the few things that could be recovered from Dr. Walton’s hard drive. They seem to have some sort of virus but I have been able to open this one.”

                “It seems to be a record of the patients that he had. Five?”

                “Five children, that’s what they say, yes.”

                “Funny.”

                “What?”

                “I just remembered something. I don’t quite remember the details, but there was something about somebody coming down some hills or something along those lines. She told me, but I didn’t pay that much attention.” Nikola admitted. “But the point was that there was a plural in there somewhere.”

                “They’re coming down the hills from behind.” Helen said. “So Sharon told you too about her little theory. That there was more than one child.”

                “You know she is right about too many things.”

                “I know. But as I told you before, she seems normal. All the tests came back clear. She can’t be Mother Maiden.”

                “Maybe not, but what if she talks through Sharon somehow? I know it sounds crazy, but…”

                “You’re suggesting she’s being possessed?”

                “Or whatever the scientific equivalent for that is.”

                “And Mother Maiden is selling us tips because…”

                “I didn’t get that far.” Nikola shrugged.

                “I also found this.” Helen said. “It was saved as a MP3 file, but when I played it, I heard nothing. And I don’t mean nothing intelligible. I mean nothing period. I was going to test it, but since you’re here and you have supernatural hearing…”

                “Play it.” Nikola said with a smile but his smile faded as the file kept playing. Helen had been right, he could hear something there. He wouldn’t have known how to describe it, but it didn’t matter at that moment. All it mattered was the pain. He felt it growing inside him, soft at first, like a tingling sensation, and then creeping through his body. It felt like fire and ice at the same time, burning him from the inside. It was akin to the feeling of being electrocuted, only he knew that feeling and liked it. Electricity was good, was soothing. This however wasn’t. It was pure evil.

                “Make it stop, please.” He was barely able to say and she pressed the pause button. But the pain was still there, still clawing at him from the inside.

                “Stop that now!” Katherine screamed as she entered the room. “Where did you get that?”

                “I thought I told you to stay in your room, Katherine.” Helen protested but Katherine ignored her. “Where did you get that?” she repeated the question, angrier this time. “How can you possibly have that?”

                “Have what?”

                “That was my daughter. She had died a long time ago, you can’t possibly have a recording of her voice, but still, there she was and…”

                “Nikola? That is what you heard?”

                “No. I heard my brother. The way he screamed in the night he died.”

                “That doesn’t make any sense.”

                “I know. What’s worse is, it doesn’t stop, Helen. It doesn’t…”

                “You still hear it?” Katherine asked. “It stopped for me… Wait. Nikola, get away from her!” she yelled. “She doesn’t have to bleed.”

                “What?” Helen asked but it was too late. Nikola had already sunk his teeth in her wrist. Her first reaction was to try and fight it, but in the end, why did she have to do that? He was her lover, she could trust him. Not to mention that it didn’t feel as bad as she had imagined. Of course, it did hurt, but his lips were as soft and as tender as she knew them, and the way his tongue flickered against her skin, almost soothing her was exciting to say the least. But she couldn’t let the warmth that had taken over her spread too far in her body. She was after all a doctor and she knew that too much blood loss could mean her blacking out, or worse. So she grabbed his hair and tried to push him away gently, but he didn’t move. That was when she panicked. He kept sucking and she could feel her body starting to betray her.

                “Nikola, stop.” She said with a small voice, but he didn’t hear or didn’t want to listen.

                “You heard the lady, lover boy.” Katherine said as she yanked his shirt and pulled him off her. “Dinner is over.” It was her force that got him to his senses. So he backed away from Helen, regret filling his eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

                “No, you shouldn’t have.” Katherine glared at him. “Are you alright, Helen?” she asked, trying to ignore the way her blood was dripping against her wrist. Great. Who the hell thought this had been a good idea again? It was the proverbial wolf guarding the lambs.

                “I’m fine.” Helen answered. “I’ll just need something for my wound, but I’ll be fine.” She said reassuringly. “Are you feeling better now?”

                “Yes. The pain stopped as soon as I tasted your blood.” Nikola admitted. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

                “Well let’s worry about the consequences later, shall we?” Helen smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re alright. And don’t feel sorry. It was…”

                “Fun?”

                “Actually I think the word I was looking for was arousing. But don’t let it go to your head.” Helen smiled at him. “We’ll discuss about the implications of this later.”

                “You can bet on that. I’ll leave now, though. I don’t think that you bleeding is a sight I want to have now.” Nikola said and headed to the door. He had thought he was going to feel better after he had tasted her, but he couldn’t have been more wrong about it. Yes, it had stopped the pain and the screams that he could hear, but a new feeling had taken control over him. Hunger. He had felt it before, but it had been a hunger for something he had thought it felt good. The difference was, he now knew exactly how good it was, and it didn’t help at all. So him leaving was actually his way of protecting her. He was probably going to feel better after a while. Or at least that was what he thought as he walked out the door, trying to ignore the way his eyes turned black and a darkness that was new and old at the same time took over him.


	27. Where Is The Edge

                Sinead couldn’t tell for how long she had been running. She had nothing left in the world. Her daughter was now dead, after she had killed her- she could have tried talking herself into thinking that she wasn’t to blame for as much as she wanted to, but deep down she knew that was it. If she hadn’t paid attention to that bastard’s lies, if she had trusted- No. Running away from Mother Maiden had been a good thing. It appeared that since she had died she had suddenly become interesting to the two of them, like there was this stupid game between them. Let’s see how many souls we can take on our side, or something like that. Well, one thing was for sure. She didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. All that mattered to her was vengeance now. Coghlan had taken her daughter and he was going to pay for that. But how? If he had been telling the truth, or at least parts of it, he was as powerful as Mother Maiden and she was just a lost soul that had no powers. Of course, there was also the alternative. Go back to Mother Maiden like a well trained dog and work for her again. That was going to piss him off a bit, at least. But it wasn’t even remotely enough to make him pay for what he had done.

                “Hello, Sinead.” Mother Maiden said as she appeared in front of her.

                “If you’ve come here for a lecture, I don’t wanna hear it. I know, I screwed up. I killed my daughter. I should have listened to you. I’ll burn in hell for what I’ve done. You know what? I don’t even care anymore. You think you did me a great favor by waking me up, but my life has been nothing than a huge mess since you did that. So why don’t you do us both a favor and go to hell and leave me the fuck alone?”

                “Actually, Sinead, I think it would do you well to shut up for a second and let me talk to you. And just so you know, I’ve been to hell. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds now, but well. I always said it needs a woman’s touch.”

                “You didn’t come here to talk about interior design, Cassandra, or whatever your name is.”

                “So he told you. Can I ask how much?”

                “Does it even matter? If I tell you that he said that you’re brainwashing people and make them work for you, that this is why Kate has been with you for so long, you’ll probably start saying this is a shitload of crap and frankly, I don’t even care who is telling the truth anymore. I just want to die. And don’t say I’m already dead because I know that. But you can kill me for good, or he can.”

                “Are you really going to ask him for that favor?”

                “I guess not. And I’m guessing you’re not helping me either.”

                “There is only one of us who is going to hell, Sinead, and that isn’t you. I promise you that. You don’t have to believe me…”she added when she saw her look “…but the only way you’re going to hell is over my dead body. You are a good girl, Sinead. Deep down, you are good.”

                “How can you still say that after I killed my daughter?”

                “I’m old and sentimental, I guess.”

                “And now you’re going to say that I have to work with the kids and if I do that you’ll free me.”

                “Actually, no. I’m going to say that they need your help. The kids and your cute doctor as well. And you can go and help them or you can spend your eternity trying to wash more than your daughter’s blood of your hands. I gave up trying to control you, Sinead. I tried that with Kate and she ran away and is probably about to make a mistake that will cost me everything. I’m not going to do that same thing with you. This time, it’s your choice.”

                “How can you possibly expect me to be able to help a kid when I wasn’t able to protect my own daughter?”

                “I told you. I’m old and sentimental.” Mother Maiden smiled. “Think about it, Sinead. Don’t make me lose another daughter to my old friend.”

* * *

                “Hey, Colin, have you seen Kate recently?” Will asked the next day as he entered the police office. She wasn’t answering her phone and he couldn’t help being worried. She had this bad habit of disappearing and taking cases on her own, but she would normally answer if he called her.

                “Not since yesterday.” Colin answered with a yawn. “She said she was going to do some research on my case, you know the one with the arsonist, because she clearly seems to think she knows better than I do, but she refused my help.”

                “So you just let her go?”

                “She’s a big girl, she can handle herself.” Detective O’Donnell shrugged. “Besides, I thought you were the one who was babysitting her.”

                “Very funny.” Will muttered. “I don’t want her out on the streets alone.”

                “Why? You think she’s getting it on somewhere with your dead girlfriend and they forgot to invite you? Really now, she is going to be fine.”

                “I’ll go look for her anyway.” Will replied. “If she comes here, tell her I wanted to talk to her.”

                “Will do. Now let me sleep.” He demanded and closed his eyes, barely seeing Will as he left angry.

* * *

                She tried to forget her chat with Mother Maiden because it only made her more confused, but she was unable to do so. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see her daughter bleeding in her arms. That crushed little body that barely breathed, and those eyes… She knew she was never going to forget them. They were what pained her the most. Not her daughter’s death, because maybe, in a way, things had been easier for her that way, but the look that she had had when she died. That look of pure terror in her eyes, the look that told her she was a monster and not even her daughter was able to love her again. She was doomed, that was the truth. Cursed to hurt others, to live on their blood or to die. What kind of a life was this? This was worse than Hell itself. She couldn’t die – she knew, because she had tried to just after she had lost her daughter – and she couldn’t live. If anybody had some mighty plan with her that was supposed to be for the greater good and stuff like that, he’d have better showed it to her right away before she got bored and found whoever was in control of this and shoved his plan right up his ass. Hmm. Maybe she had to go to Coghlan and make him pay for what he had done. It was a win-win situation, after all. She was untouchable, at least to some extent, so she was either going to kill him or die trying. None of those sounded that bad at the moment.

                She closed her eyes, trying to imagine the look on that bastard’s face when she was going to find him, but it wasn’t his face that she saw. Instead, she saw a child who was playing with a police car. He seemed to be so carried away in his game that he didn’t notice her mother entering the room before it was too late. She grabbed his car and threw it away, making the boy cry. “You’ve been a bad boy. You don’t deserve to play, I told you. And with that? You know what I think about police, dear.”

                “But mommy…” The child protested but his mother wasn’t listening. She took his toy car and left slamming the door behind her, as the kid watched her. Sinead would have expected him to continue crying, but he didn’t do that. Instead, he wiped his tears, took a doll out of one of his drawers and watched it for a moment. It wasn’t the type of doll you would have expected a boy to have, with that beautiful black long hair and the traditional costume she was wearing. Sinead watched as the boy stared blankly at the doll for a few minutes and then set her hair on fire.

                It took her a while to get what she had just seen. This had to be one of the visions the triplets had told her about. Great. So she was having them too now. Like her afterlife wasn’t complicated enough… Whatever. As she said, killing Mr. Coghlan was her main priority. She was going to worry about the dolls later. She tried to convince herself of that, but she couldn’t. Instead, she felt another desire growing inside her. The desire to do something good, something that she would never benefit from. After all, maybe she was having these visions for a reason. Maybe somebody had finally decided to show her what she was supposed to do. And if that was the case, running from it would have only made her situation worse. _Think, Sinead._ She urged herself. _What does it mean?_

* * *

 

                Hours later, Will still hadn’t found Kate, and now he was really worried. After all, Colin, despite his stupid jokes, had a point. He clearly didn’t want her on the streets alone at night. Of course, she wasn’t the type that Sinead would have targeted, but who knew, in the end? He had called Magnus and told her about the fact that he had lost Kate, but she seemed to have her own problems. On the bright side, she had got her hands on someone she had suspected to be a part of Mother Maiden’s team, but on the dark side, she couldn’t do anything to help him other than give him a 10 minutes lecture he knew he deserved but otherwise didn’t help him at all.

                He noticed he was alone in the archway a moment too late. Somebody had grabbed his shirt and shoved him in the nearest wall.

                “Hello, William.” Sinead said. Great. Exactly what he needed. Apparently, she had made new friends, because this time she wasn’t alone. There was a young boy following her- one of the triplets, he supposed. Just great.

                “What do you want? I’m not enough food for the both of you, especially if the kid is packing another two brothers somewhere in there.” Will tried to joke but Sinead only rolled her eyes.

                “It’s more complicated with the kid than that, Zimmy. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you have five minutes?”

                “Why?”

                “I think I know where she is.”


	28. Angels

                “Where who is?” Will asked, trying to free himself from Sinead’s grasp.

                “He’s a bit slow isn’t he?” The boy asked. “I don’t know what you see in him.”

                “That girl you’re working for.” Sinead said impatiently. “The brunette. I know who kidnapped her.”

                “So something did happen to her! And you know where she is?”

                “Well, not exactly, but I know who has her, so I guess that is a good start. I wish I came to find you sooner, but I…Well. It’s a long story, actually, and I’m not sure we have time for it. She is in danger.”

                “If you had anything to do with this…”

                “Chill, man. Just because we’re dead it doesn’t mean we’re the bad guys, OK?” The boy said. “Your girlfriend is fine, but she won’t stay that way if we’re going to sit here and chat.”

                “She’s not my girlfriend. But no, I’m not exactly free either.” He said when he saw Sinead’s look.

                “I’m not interested anyway. But to business. When was the last time you have seen that detective that works with you Colin something?”

                “Why?”

                “Because he’s the last one who saw Kate, for one. You’re a cop and it hasn’t crossed your mind to ask him about this?”

                “It did, actually. But wait. You can’t possibly think he did it, right? I mean he is a cop.”

                “Yes yes and I’m an undead drug addict that sucks blood for a living. And still, I am the good guy. I know, it keeps confusing me too.”

                “You know what, this is crazy. We’re going to go to the precinct and you’ll see that he is there and not in some hideout torturing Kate and then you’ll leave me really investigate her disappearing, deal?”

* * *

 

                Colin smiled when he saw Kate moving in her seat. Good. He had feared for a moment that he had drugged her too hard and that she wasn’t going to wake up. He didn’t want that. More than half of the fun was to watch their body shake in pain as the flames took over them. He closed his eyes and his mind transported him to another day, to another fire. The one that had killed his father. No, actually, that wasn’t quite true. His mother had killed his father and it was because of him. They were returning from a party that night and, because his father had drunk a bit too much, he had let her drive. It only took a moment when she didn’t pay attention at the road, a moment in which she turned to talk to her young boy for them to run into another car. He still remembered the way flames spread in the car, the smoke that choked him, filling his lungs. It had also been his fault and his mother knew that. That was why, that night, he had lost both of his parents. Her mother had killed his father and then she proceeded on killing him, day by day, until his soul was shredded to pieces. She had been supposed to love him, but there was nothing left that she could feel for him after that night, nothing but hate.

                “Good morning, Kate.” Colin smiled when she woke up. “I hope you’ll enjoy my house, because it’s the last thing you’ll ever see before you die.”

                “Let me go now!” She screamed as she tried to free herself from the restraints that were holding her, but was unsuccessful.

                “Sorry, can’t do that. It’s bad enough that you got me out of my comfort zone, you know. But I guess you wouldn’t have wanted to take a ride with me anyway given the fact that you suspected me. Oh well. I’m sorry for the house, but I’ll have to keep the fire. I always thought it brings a nice touch to the whole thing.”

                “So you are the arsonist.”

                “Yeah, congratulations, you’re a better profiler than Zimmerman is. Sadly, the only prize for you is death.”

                “He’ll find you.”

                “Zimmerman? Please. Of course he’ll find me. I want him to. He’ll find me here, crying over your ashes and I am going to tell him that I simply arrived too late.”

                “Why? Why are you doing all of this?”

                “Don’t try this act on me, Kate. You don’t give a damn why I’m doing this. You just want to keep me busy talking while you find a way to escape. But since I’m going to kill you anyway, I guess I might as well answer that. I don’t expect you to understand what it’s like, to hate your mother, to hate the one person who is supposed to love you and support you no matter what you choose to do with your life. She killed my father and, if that wasn’t enough she continued killing me every day after that. Little by little, until I felt my soul shredding into pieces.”

                “How did she kill your father?”

                “Car accident. I’ll spare you the details.”

                “So this is why you do this? You make women relive the accident? Punish them for what your mother did?”

                “I don’t expect you to understand, Kate. You keep saying you were a criminal once, but you weren’t a killer. Maybe you killed, but you don’t know the thrill. You don’t know what it’s like to see your victims going down in flames, to feel the warmth that takes control over your body as if the fire that is killing them would burn inside you as well. There is nothing that can be compared to this. It used to be the only thing that can warm my heart that can melt the cold I was forced to live in growing up with my mother. Truth is, Kate, I’m sorry for killing you. You’re so not my type.”

                “Then let me go.”

                “Nice try, but please. Do you really think I’m that stupid? Oh no. You’re going to burn just like the ones before you.”

                “You do realize this doesn’t prove anything.” Will said when they got to the precinct and saw that Colin was gone. “Maybe he had a stomachache or something.”

                “Or maybe the big bad profiler is too arrogant to admit that he was wrong and I was right.” Sinead grinned at him. “Why don’t we pay the guy a visit?”

                “What to his house? You really think he keeps his victims there?”

                “Of course not. But we need a place to start. Didn’t Kate tell you anything?”

                “No. She does things like this from time to time, going to solve cases on her own. Usually gets them right, but it still gets on my nerves. I’ll search the police database to see if there are any records on Colin, but I doubt he left any trails behind.”

                “Yeah that’s pretty much a long shot.” Sinead admitted as she looked over his shoulder into the computer screen. “What’s that?” she asked as she pointed a picture on Colin’s desk. It showed a young boy holding his mother’s hand in front of a shop window. “Answer me, Zimmy. What’s this? In the shop window?” She asked, putting her finger on the picture.

                “No idea. I guess it’s an old picture of him with his mother, but I fail to see how this is important to us.”

                “It looks like a dollhouse.” The boy said and both he and Sinead started grinning.

* * *

 

                “You know, Kate, I would tell you that it’s going to be alright and that it’s not going to hurt at all, but I know you won’t believe me so I won’t even bother.” Colin smirked at her. “You were brilliant, I’ll give you that. Or maybe I was too careless.”

                “Yeah, that too. Never defend a killer. Some might get suspicious.” Kate spat at him.

                “I’ll keep that in mind next time.”

                “What is this place?” Kate asked. “You keep calling it a house, but it looks more like an abandoned building to me.”

                “I’m glad you asked. This was once a toy store. My mother used to take me here back when we got along. I always liked watching the dollhouses. She’d never bought me one, because she said they weren’t for boys and stuff like that, but I always dreamt to have on. I still think it would burn nicely.”

                “You’re mental.”

                “Probably that’s what most people would say, yes. But oh well. At least you won’t say anything more for too long. Say goodbye, Katie.” Colin smiled at her as he poured gasoline around her. “Ah, yes, I forgot to mention this. I also like the way gasoline smells.” He said as he lit a match. “It was nice meeting you, even if you were an arrogant pain in the ass.”

                “Good to know.” Kate glared at him and he dropped his match. Flames started surrounding her, but then more than one thing happened at the same time. Somebody broke in the building and Kate could have sworn she saw somebody throwing Colin in the opposite part of the room. The smoke was getting thicker and filled her lungs but she could see Will as he untied her and took her in his arms. “Let’s get you out of here.” He said with a soothing tone and carried her outside.

                “What happened?” She asked as she took a deep breath, letting the air clean her lungs. “What you work with her now?” she asked when she saw Sinead.

                “And not only her.” Will smiled. “It’s a long story.”

                “Speaking of which, where’s the kid?” Sinead asked.

                “I thought he was with you.” Will said and saw worry creeping on Sinead’s face. Not saying a single word, she ran back into the fire.

                The flames were taking over him, but he didn’t care that much at the moment. He felt them on his skin and the feeling was exquisite in a way. He couldn’t even remember when the last time he had actually felt anything was. The blast that had killed his family had been too fast and he didn’t have time to feel anything, but this… This was different. He knew he should have left Colin alone, but he was hungry and he decided that this time listening to his brothers was a good idea. Colin was definitely his kind of food and he wasn’t going to let a little fire stop him from feeding. So he sank his teeth into Colin’s neck, sipping the blood under his skin.

                “Kid, let’s go!” He heard Sinead calling for him but he couldn’t leave, not just yet. The blood was too good and he was still not sated enough. Flames started eating at his flesh but he didn’t care.

                “Maybe you’re not realizing at the moment, but fire can hurt us, so let’s leave!” Sinead screamed and when he still didn’t listen, she grabbed him and ran away with him in her arms.

                “Let me go!” the boy screamed. “See what you’ve done? You’ve wasted perfectly good food.” he muttered as he watched the flames taking over the building.

                “You’re welcome. You know, for saving your life and all that.” Sinead said sarcastically.

                “Still thinking you can be a hero, Sinead?” Mr. Coghlan asked, appearing from the shadows as he clapped silently. “You’re so naïve it’s beautiful.”

                “You.” It was the only thing she could say as she glared at him.

                “Yes, little old me. I bet Cassandra is very proud of herself now. Her little student saving lives and putting others before herself. She had always been a fan of this- of course, when it comes to others, because she wouldn’t move a single finger if she had to save someone, but oh well.”

                “I’m not listening to you. Not ever again.”

                “I don’t care, Sinead. You girls don’t see it yet. I may have lost a battle, but I will win the war. Cassie had always been awful at multitasking. And while she was here, taking care of you, I made the final steps in doing what I always wanted to do. You were just a pawn, Sinead. Some pawns must be sacrificed in order to take a queen… Or a king. Or both. It’s a win win situation for me anyway…


	29. The Last Time

                “Nikola, I know you’re in there, you know.” Helen sighed with frustration. “Hiding won’t help you, you know.”

                “Go away.” He muttered. He wasn’t in the mood for seeing her right now, not after what he had done.

                “For the last time, I’m fine, alright? I told you, there was a part of me that liked it. A lot I might add. If you don’t want to do it again, fine, but please don’t get this stupid idea that you’ve somehow hurt me.” Helen said. Truth was, the wound still hurt, but it didn’t matter to her. She had known what she had signed up for when she had finally agreed to be with him. Denying it for so long had been a mistake. She knew the legends. Legends of blood and lust and love that claimed that for a vampire there was a very small difference between hunger and desire. She should have known he was going to cross the line one day and now that he did… Well, she couldn’t have said it was so bad after all. Besides, she needed him now more than ever, with all the trouble they were in. Will had called a few hours before and told her that Kate was gone, and now Nikola was hiding thinking he was some sort of a monster…

                “Helen, please, leave.” He almost begged her. It was becoming almost unbearable. Even if he didn’t see her, he knew that she was leaning against the door, her heart pounding in her chest… “I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

                “You won’t. I have faith in you, remember?”

                He finally opened the door, watching as she stood in the doorstep. They had had this discussion before, the night when she had got engaged and he hadn’t taken the news too well, but this time, it was different. This time, things had got out of hand and he had hurt her. Or had he? _Come on, Nikola, she said it herself. She liked it. Stop questioning your instincts. This could benefit the both of you. You’ve tried enough kinky things over the years, why not this one?_ A voice called in his mind but he tried his best to ignore it.

                “Good. You’re here.” Helen smiled at him. “I’ll fix you up a glass of wine and we can talk, alright?” She asked and he couldn’t help noticing how beautiful she was when she was like that. Insecure, vulnerable and downright delicious.

                “Helen…” he warned her, even if he knew it would be in vain. He knew her all too well. She didn’t like to use the m word and he would have probably been the last one she would have wanted to use it with, but there was no need to hide what he really was. In the end, he was used to getting what he wanted, and right now there was only one thing that fell under that. So why fight it anymore? Her blood was singing to him again and soon it became too hard to resist the urge. So he grabbed her hair and tilted her head backward as his lips trapped hers in a suffocating kiss. But it wasn’t enough. Now that he thought about it, he had no idea how it had ever been enough. It felt like a blessing when he sunk his teeth in her neck, piercing her skin. He felt her body tremble under his in a way that could have meant a single thing – there was a part of her that loved it. So he kept on sucking, despite the fact that she had started protesting against it.

                “Nikola, don’t. Stop.” She whispered with whatever strength she had left, cursing her body for liking this. This was wrong. She had already lost enough blood and she knew that any more blood loss could have meant death to her. But there was a part of her that didn’t care about anything else at the moment except letting him continue.

                “I have no intention to stop, love, don’t worry.” He said pausing a bit and watching her. His eyes were pit black and there wasn’t a single touch of humanity in them. She could see the blood- her blood- glistening on his smirking lips and for one second all she could think about was that he looked insanely hot like that. But then her mind got control over her. This couldn’t carry on.

                “Can you please at least wait until I recover?” she tried negotiating. “My body will rebuild its supply of blood in a few days and then we can do it again, but now it’s becoming a bad idea.”

                “Always the doctor.” Nikola said, rolling his eyes. “Let me write the rules this time, what do you say? After all, I am the more evolved of the two of us.”

                “I was afraid you might say that.” She said as she took her gun out and pointed it to his chest. “I’m really sorry to stop you, trust me, but if you keep going on there will be no one to feed from.” she tried to convince him, but it was in vain. So she fired two shots in his heart and ran away as fast as she could, her wound still bleeding. It was now her turn to lock herself up in her office, praying that he would come to his senses and that everything would be alright again.

* * *

 

                “Wait. Are you saying she got bitten?” Sharon asked worried. “And you couldn’t stop it?”

                “I was having problems of my own.” Katherine sighed. “There was this file on Helen’s computer, and when she played it, me and Nikola both snapped out of control. It was as if this was exactly what it had been designed for.”

                “Make you lose control?”

                “Something like that. It was my daughter, Sharon. I haven’t heard her in more than 100 years, and still, there she was, screaming like she did the night John had raped her. Only this time, she was saying these terrible things to me. That it was all my fault, that she was in trouble now and the only way to save her, to make everything right was for me to feed, to feed from Helen and… I almost lost it myself. Tesla just didn’t take it as well as I did, I guess.”

                “But that’s impossible. Nobody could have a recording of your daughter, and even if they did… Why would Nikola care about that?”

                “He wasn’t hearing her. He heard his brother. Yes, I know he is also dead for more than 100 years, Sharon. Don’t give me that look. I know it’s not possible and I know we were probably just imagining everything. But if somebody had designed that file and sent it to us…”

                “Designed?”

                “Yes. This is too much of a coincidence, Sharon. It was meant to do this to us.”

                “But why would anyone benefit from that?”

                “You tell me. All I know is that Mother Maiden isn’t the only one that takes care of the undead. There is somebody else. She usually refuses to talk about him, but from what I’ve gathered... He wants Helen. They both do. That’s why I came here. I don’t want her dead, Sharon.”

                “Me neither. But I thought Mother Maiden is a force of good. Why would she want Helen dead?”

                “Experience. I’m not saying she was going to kill her.” Katherine added when she saw her look. “I’m just saying that I expected her to do more to protect her, but she was all _we can’t change fate, this is what has to happen, yadda yadda yadda._

                “So our destiny is already written?”

                “This is what she says. She says that Helen has to die and that Nikola has to kill her and that we can’t do anything to stop this.”

                “Why are you telling me all of this?”

                “Because I can’t help thinking you have some answers, Sharon. Answers to questions that have to be asked, even if they hadn’t been asked yet. You are special, I can tell that. How… I’m still working on that part. But you have to help me save Helen.”

                “Do you really expect me to fight a vampire?”

                “There are more powerful forces than us, Sharon. I only expect you to do what they tell you. And no, I have no idea what that is.” Katherine smiled sadly.

                “That’s helpful.” Sharon snapped at her. “And to think a week and a half ago I thought my biggest problem was getting nervous before a concert.”

                “Life has its ways, I guess.” Katherine shrugged. “Now, listen. I need you to go find Helen. I’m going to search for Nikola, see if I can talk to him. Tell her the whole truth, if you have to. We need to protect her.”

                “But how am I supposed to convince her that the one she loves is a monster? You know what she thinks about the m word.”

                “You’re the lyric writer.” Katherine said. “And if you want to trade and to be the one who deals with what is probably a very angry vampire at the moment…”

                “Alright, alright, I got it.” Sharon sighed. “I’ll take Helen.”

* * *

 

                As she tried to stop her neck from bleeding, Helen couldn’t stop thinking if she hadn’t been wrong about Nikola all along. She loved him, yes, but he had too many issues in a way. Of course, most of those had been her fault – alright, each one had been her fault, but it still didn’t give him the right to hurt her like that. And alright, she liked him hurting her like that. But there was a fine line between dying from pleasure and just dying, as she had found out that night.

                She hadn’t doubted him for more than one year, since he had given up his plans of world domination to be beside her, to save the very world he despised, because of her- and still, there were moments when she wondered if it was enough. Did she really need somebody like him in her life? He had fire, yes, and she liked that, but in the end. She had plenty of fire herself. And too much fire in a relationship… could have meant somebody was bound to get burned. And since she wasn’t the immortal one she really started to wonder if it was really worth it. After all, her father had warned her about this. Her father… Her heart was flooded with guilt when she remembered him. He had taught her everything about her job, he had taught her to be tolerant to every species, except vampires. He had told her over a thousand times that there had been a time when they had ruled the Earth, when people had been merely slaves and that she should never trust a vampire. And now, she was sleeping with one. The last time she had ignored her father’s advice when it came to love… No. He didn’t deserve that analogy. But she soon reconsidered that when he broke inside her office and grabbed her neck.

                “You really thought that door was going to stop me?” He laughed at her. “Vampire, remember?”

                “How can I possibly forget?” she smiled bitterly as he stared at her with all kinds of hunger in his eyes.

                “Nikola, listen. It doesn’t have to be like this.” she tried to plead.

                “There’s the doctor in you again.” He growled at her. “Don’t you see, Helen? This is exactly why it’s not going to work between us. You keep trying to help me, to save me. Well here’s a little something for you. I don’t need to be saved. You keep saying that I’m not a monster like I would have a problem with that, but I don’t. Not all monsters want your help, Helen, and it’s about time you learned that. I’ve always knew what I wanted. World domination was a nice distraction, yes, but the only thing I really wanted was you. In all the possible ways. I just didn’t realize that the thing I want the most is your blood, not until now.”

                “But you’re hurting me.”

                “Oh. _I_ am hurting _you_. What about all those years when you hurt me? Not physically, yes, but emotionally. I’ve waited you for so long to come to your senses, to accept that you want me, and I thought you did, but you still can’t give up a little blood for me.”

                “You promised not to feed on humans, Nikola.”

                “And live with antelopes for the rest of my eternity? I may have thought it was going to work once, but not anymore. I’m sorry, Helen. But I have to have you. I promise I’ll teach you to like it.         “

                “I don’t recognize you anymore, Nikola. I tried to help you fight your demons, but the truth is, you love them to death.”

                “Then stop helping me, Helen. We’ve done our share of kinky stuff. Think of it as a new beginning for us.”

                “No. I swore a long time ago that I won’t let anybody take advantage of me, Nikola, and I almost broke that promise with you. But it was the last time.”


	30. Enter

                “You saved me.” The boy told Sinead, unable to believe his own words. “Why?”

                “Now don’t get all mushy with me.” Sinead smiled at him. “You’re a good boy. Boys, whatever. I still think you are creepy little shits but you’re fun sometimes. But don’t let it go to your heads.”

                “We won’t.” The boy answered. “You know, I hate saying this, but…”

                “Now now. You’ve been a complete idiot for your whole life, brother. I think it’s time to change something.”

                “Fine. I guess it’s good to know that we aren’t that awful and that somebody can actually care for us.”

                “Of course you’re not awful. Sure, you’re creepy as hell, but I should be the last to judge this.” Sinead grinned. “Now, who is next on our list?”

                “About that Sinead…” Mother Maiden said, appearing in front of them. “I think you’ll find out that nobody is. Not for you four.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “You’re free to go.”

                “Where?”

                “To whatever is next. I can’t tell you, because I’ve never been there, but I heard it is quite nice. I hope you’ll like it.”

                “You mean we’re not going to Hell? But we’ve killed our loved ones, I killed my own daughter! You can’t possibly say we’ve been forgiven for all of this!”

                “You don’t really get it, do you? This whole thing with hunting evil people in order to redeem your souls… I hate to call it marketing, but this is what it is, in a way. The point is, nobody can’t forgive you if you don’t forgive yourself first. Your main issue is that you used to think you’re evil. You thought that you are a bad mother and that you can’t take care of anyone, and the triplets thought that there is something wrong with them and that nobody can love them. I think this night showed you all how wrong you’ve been.”

                “How can I possibly forgive myself, after I killed my daughter?”

                “Oh. About that. Take my hand, Sinead. I need you to see something.” Mother Maiden said and Sinead listened to her, still not sure about anything. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was now in her daughter’s bedroom. She hadn’t seen it for a very long time and the very sight of it threatened to bring tears in her eyes. But what shocked her the most was that her daughter’s bed wasn’t empty. Her little Susan was right there, sleeping as if nothing wrong had ever happened to her.

                “What? This isn’t possible.” Sinead whispered, afraid that she might wake her up. “I saw her dying in my arms.”

                “You’ve only seen what he wanted you to see, Sinead.” Mother Maiden smiled sadly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth, but I wasn’t allowed to. Think of it like some sort of a test. I am really sorry that you had to be put through all of this.”

                “You lied to me!”

                “I did. You’ll find out that my methods aren’t completely good sometimes, but they work and, in the end, this is everything that matters. As Mr. Coghlan or whatever that bastard calls himself these days told you, we aren’t the bosses around here. We can bend some things to satisfy our will, like he did when he made you see your daughter dying, but that’s pretty much it. You needed to be put to a test, Sinead, and when you told me that your daughter died, I thought it would be a good idea to let you believe that. I wasn’t sure about you, but now I am. Can you please forgive me?”

                “You do realize this is a lot to ask, I hope.”

                “I do. Allow me to make things right, then.” She smiled at her. Saying this, she went to Susan and shook her body until she woke up. The sight of her mother being in her bedroom made her scream, but she stopped when she saw her put a finger over her mouth.

                “Who are you?” she asked Mother Maiden. “What are you doing here?”

                “There’s no need to be afraid, Susan. I came here to tell you a story.” Mother Maiden said on a soothing voice. “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Sinead. She had done a lot of awful things in her life, but what she regretted the most was that she had destroyed every chance her daughter ever had at happiness. So when she died, her biggest regret was that her daughter didn’t love her anymore, that she only saw her as a monster. But the story doesn’t end here. No story ends when people die, actually. You’ll need to remember that. Because the day Sinead died it was the day she started to live, in a way. She changed in ways you can never imagine, and tonight she saved a boy’s life.”

                “Is she telling the truth, mommy?” Susan asked with a yawn.

                “Well, she exaggerated with some parts, but mainly, yes.”

                “Then I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said all those things to you, but Mr. Coghlan used to tell me you’re evil and somehow I ended up believing him and…”

                “Yeah, he does that to people. There’s no need to apologize, Susan. I deserved every part of that.” Sinead said with a sigh. “But mommy has to go now.”

                “Where?”

                “Somewhere nice, or so I’ve been told. But I’ll keep an eye on you, got it? Don’t get into trouble and-“Sinead said but she wasn’t able to finish her sentence because Susan hugged her, squeezing her hard in her arms.

                “You still need to work on your parenting style, you know.” Mother Maiden laughed when they returned to the others. “But you’ll have plenty of time for that on the other side.”

                “You as in plural?”

                “Well the triplets need a mother and you need some kids. It seems fitting.”

                “So I’m stuck with them for all eternity? You gotta be kidding me.”

                “If you want them.”

                “Fine. But you guys have to warn me when you change voices, alright?”

                “Deal.”

                “And don’t call me mommy if you wanna live. And…”

                “Oh will you shut up for once?” The boy laughed. “You love this… mommy.” She didn’t answer anything, but only glared at him. Truth was, this wasn’t so bad after all. But she needed to do something else before she left. She turned to Will, who had stayed there the whole time, watching the scene.

                “Will you be fine, Zimmy?” She asked with a sigh.

                “Stop calling me like that.”

                “Oh come on we make quite the team, you have to give me that.”

                “Yeah, when you’re not all dead and creepy and trying to suck my blood that is. But don’t worry for me. I’ll be fine.”

                “Good to know that. Oh, and one more thing. You know I promised to call you if you get on my list?”

                “Yes.”

                “Well consider this a call then.” she said as she approached him slowly. Before he could protest, she grabbed his hair and placed a kiss on his neck, dangerously close t his pulse point.

                “Now, now. You’ve just got on the nice list you don’t want to bite me.” Will said, panting hard.

                “Please, Zimmerman. I’ll never be totally on the nice list. That’s what you like about me.” Sinead laughed. “Come on, kids. Let’s see if that light is all that is cracked up to be.”  She said and with these words she disappeared.

                “I don’t expect you to understand any of this, Dr. Zimmerman.” Mother Maiden smiled at him. “But I don’t have any time to explain. I trust Miss Freelander will be fine.”

                “Thanks to Sinead.”

                “She had her uses, you have to give her that. But now if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere else to be.”

                “Can I ask where?”

                “I’m going to prove that bastard wrong. He said I can’t put others before me. He’ll see just how wrong he was. Have a nice life, Dr. Zimmerman. Don’t get on my list. On any of them, for that matter. You have a girlfriend in Heaven waiting for you.”

                “For the last time, she’s not my girlfriend!” Will sighed in frustration, but she was already gone. Why would anybody think he and Sinead were meant to be again? She was too dead for his tastes and it wouldn’t have worked anyway, and… And still, his neck still burned from her kiss. Great. Why couldn’t he love a normal girl for once?


	31. The Heart of Everything

                “Nikola, what have you done?” Sharon asked shocked as she entered Helen’s office. His lips were blooded and he watched Helen, cradling her into his arms. She wasn’t moving and for a second Sharon thought that she was dead, but then she saw her breathing slowly.

                “Go away if you don’t want to be next. I’m not sure I’ll stop being hungry after finishing her.”

                “ _Finishing_ her?!” Sharon screamed at him. “Listen to yourself! How can you talk like this about her? You love her.”

                “Do I?” Nikola mused and he couldn’t help a smile forming on his lips. Did he ever really love her? Wanted her, yes, but love… How could he possibly love someone who didn’t understand him? That didn’t support him that kept him locked in the stupid cage that the Sanctuary was, that had forced him to give up his biggest dream to be with her? He had developed wireless electricity, made his biggest dream come true, and what had she said? Turn it off, we don’t need it because there had been the little glitch of creatures from another dimension coming into ours and endangering those stupid humans she seemed to care so much about. After all, of course she had. She had been one of them once, but that wasn’t the case with him.

                “You’re not yourself, Nikola.” Sharon said scared. “I don’t know what got into you, but you have to stop now before you hurt her anymore. This isn’t you.”

                “You’re right. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me, but then you came into our lives, with your stupid dreams and your stupid stories about me drinking blood and everything. I never thought about it until you came here. So why should I repent to you, if you’re the one to blame? Not to mention that you’re just a mortal and I hold little to none respect for you.”

                “Then don’t repent to me. Just open up your eyes and see what you’ve become. You hurt the only woman who loved you, the only one who stood by your side no matter what.”

                “And now you’re going to tell me that I’m a monster and that I don’t deserve to live anymore? Do you have any idea what I gave you people, what I sacrificed to build a new world for you? And still you revile me, say that other people invented what I created, and worst of all, pretend I don’t even exist. I’m nothing but an old fool that had a thing with pigeons and that died alone in his hotel room. Even I don’t deserve that. ”

                “You’re right, you don’t. Just as you don’t deserve to die. Which will happen if you kill her. We both know why Katherine is here, and she already forgave you once.”

                “Then let her try to kill me. Don’t you understand, Sharon? I don’t care if I live or not anymore. All I want is to have Helen, in the most vampiric way possible. And if she dies because of this, I’ll see her on the other side. If not, win win situation. I can control myself in time. She just needs to survive long enough for me to train myself. And I know just how to do that.”

                “You’ll turn her.”

                “The thought had crossed my mind, yes. I should have done it way earlier, but she seemed to have a problem with that. But I don’t care anymore. We could be together, and that is everything that matters. Just imagine, Sharon. You’ve seen hints of how we lust for one another now. Us being both vampires will only deepen that.”

                “She’s going to hate you forever if you do that.”

                “Probably. But let’s see how she’ll ignore me forever. She’ll need someone to teach her the ways, to teach her how to feed, how to control the hunger.”

                “Right cause you’re so good with that.” Sharon mocked him.

                “Maybe not. But you know what? I’m sick and tired to be the damsel in distress in this whole thing. She’s always got a lot more attention than I did. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a dinner to finish. And I’m not sure it would be polite for you to stay and watch, but hey if it turns you on…” Saying this, he sank his teeth in her flesh again, letting the now familiar taste take over his senses. He still couldn’t believe how arousing the whole thing was. There was nothing that could be compared to what he felt when he saw her weak in his arms. She looked almost at peace with herself, a moan escaping her lips from time to time. But he didn’t have time to savor the view too much because Katherine stormed into the room and jumped at him, causing him to drop her.

                “I warned you, vampire.” she hissed at him. “I’ll kill you for what you’ve done.”

                “You’re welcome to try.” he smirked as he let his talons grow and sank them into Katherine’s skin. “Let’s see how well Mother Maiden trained you.”

                “Gladly.”

                “No! Don’t do that!” Sharon cried at them. “Don’t you see? This is what he wants. Everybody going crazy, forgetting who they are…”

                “Who what wants?” Katherine asked surprised, her hand frozen on Nikola’s neck.

                “I don’t know. Whoever is behind everything. I call him the deceiver of fools, but I guess Mother Maiden could tell us more about him. But that’s not the point here. The point is, there was a part of me that always knew him. That knew that he can only live if you believe what he tells you. This is what he does, planting seeds of doubts into people’s souls, turning them to monsters… You were a good girl, Katherine. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have run away, because you were right to try and protect Helen, but like this? And what good would it do to you if you killed him? Justice? Is this really the justice that Mother Maiden had taught you? You only kill killers, people that are truly evil, not people that had been manipulated.”

                “Manipulated, Sharon? Manipulated?! Look what he has done!” Katherine shouted as she pointed to Helen’s now lifeless body. “I should have killed him the first time I lay my eyes on him.”

                “And you, Nikola.” Sharon continued. “You’re not like this. You can pretend as long as you want that this is what you desired, but I know that’s not true. You’re not a monster. I know it’s easier for you to think this, because it saves you the trouble of fighting with yourself, but that isn’t the way. I refuse to believe that somebody who invented such wonderful things doesn’t care about anybody but himself. And yes, I know people are being complete dickheads about you, but Helen understood you. Remember what it felt like when she watched you? And I’m not talking about the times she slept with you, because I know that you liked that too. But you’re not just a couple who can’t keep their hands off each other and that is the only reason you stay together. You love each other, more than you’ll ever realize it. And this is exactly why you’re not going to kill her. Not today, not ever. She was the only one that stood beside you no matter what, and I know she had her issues, but… You keep saying that she hurt you, but you never understood what was in her heart. She was too scared to love again, but you taught her that. You are the lightning, the clock that never stops ticking, the one who was able to melt the ice in her heart. You don’t need to be the next John for her to love you. You just have to be Nikola.”

                “What have I done?” Nikola whispered as realization hit him. His eyes turned to their normal blue again and he couldn’t help tears flooding his eyes as he watched his dear Helen lying motionless on the floor.

                “Good, now we all agree that you deserve to be punished, can I please kill him now?” Katherine asked impatiently.

                “No.” A voice said.

                “Sharon, come on, you’ve seen for yourself that-“ Katherine said but she stopped when she realized it hadn’t been Sharon the one who talked. “You.” She said when she saw Mother Maiden appearing in the room. “You really need to stop doing that, you know. It still scares the crap out of me. But come on, I get why you were against the idea before, but she’s dying. This makes him evil. Why can’t I kill him now?”

                “For the same reason I brought the girl back, Katherine. There is black, there is white and there are vampires who are a really nasty shade of grey.” Mother Maiden smiled at her.

                “The girl as in the vampire in doctor Walton’s laboratory?” Sharon asked surprised. “So I was right. You saved her.”

                “You were right about many things, Sharon, and I never realized why, until now.” Mother Maiden smiled at her.

                “So why did you let her live? She killed her adoptive parents. She was a monster, a danger to everyone around her…”

                “Many things, but not all things. You’re wrong here, Sharon. I saved the girl because…”

                “Because of me.” A man said, appearing in the room. “Hello, Cassie. It’s been a very long time.”


	32. Stand My Ground

                “You’re Victor Walton. The doctor. But how… I thought you were dead.” Sharon said shocked when she recognized him, causing the man to smile at her. “Ah, yes. Poor Claire thought that too. That’s why she tried to kill our daughter.”

                “So the whole vampire thing was a trick to make her feel guilty for everything?”

                “Yes. You know, the kid wasn’t as bad as I hoped she would be. Legends said that vampires are vicious creatures, but she was too nice for the job sadly. That’s why I had to design that little file that caused Nikola to go insane, you see? It doesn’t mean anything to most people, but to beings that live on blood… Well. I guess you could say it’s music to their ears. You see, the one thing that they have in common is the blood on their hands. People they have hurt, or even killed during their lives and that haunt them at night. That little file just wakes all those nightmares back to life.”

                “But why?”

                “Training, Sharon.” Mother Maiden sighed. “He wanted Helen all along, just as I had. And we both knew that Nikola was the key to her. That he is the one that has to kill her.”

                “So now you’ll what? Let her die?”

                “There is nothing I can do for her now, Sharon, I’m sorry. I will bring her back and hopefully get her to work for me, but that’s pretty much everything I will ever be able to do. I wish I could change this.”

                “Presuming she chooses you, Cassandra. You’ve never been a good mother.”

                “Shut up!” Mother Maiden screamed and for the first time Sharon could see that she was scared. It was then when everything fell into place.

                “You can’t let her die, Cassandra.” she pleaded. “Think what Jillian would say if you did that.”

                “How do you know about Jillian?” It was the man’s turn to be surprised. “Cassie did you tell her anything?”

                “I didn’t.” Mother Maiden smiled. “She scares you, doesn’t she? Welcome to the club.”

                “But she’s just a singer.”

                “She’s so much more than that, I’m afraid. Tell me, Sharon. What did you see about Jillian?”

                Great, now everybody was watching her as she was somehow going to save the day. Bloody brilliant. The man was right, she was just a singer. This whole savior stuff didn’t seem her style. But she had no choice, after all, so she closed her eyes and let a vision that had been haunting her for a while finally form in her mind.

                _She was tied up to a pyre, the whole village watching her. How could they do this to her, after all the help that she had given them? All the things she had warned them about? But it seemed nothing mattered to them anymore. She was a witch, a creature of the devil and she had to die._

_“This is your last chance, Cassandra.” The priest told her, bringing the torch closer to her feet. “Do you repent for your sins?”_

_“I already told you, I have nothing to repent for. How many times have I saved your children? How many times have you come in the middle of the night, seeking guidance? And now this? What have I done to deserve this?”_

_“Silence, witch!” The priest yelled as he slapped her across her face. “Your husband told us exactly what you’ve been up to, how you talk to the devil at nights, how you conjure him.” The reality of these words struck her heart. She could have died then and there, she didn’t care that much, but the thought of his husband betraying her… She searched his eyes, trying to find a bit of remorse in them, but she only saw darkness. Take care of our daughter. Her eyes begged him, but he only puffed in disgust and she felt her world collapsing. Her daughter. Her poor Jillian. It was all her fault, and she just wished her death would make things better for her, but she knew that wouldn’t be the case. Being the witch’s daughter meant that you were going to share her fate sooner or later._

_“Promise me you’ll leave my daughter alone. I repent and I confess everything you wish for, just promise she’ll be safe.” She begged the priest but he laughed at her. “We’ll keep a close eye on your daughter, witch. Maybe the devil won’t be satisfied with just taking you.” Saying this, he threw the torch on the wood and she felt flames burning her feet._

_It was then when she saw her. It only took her a second to understand what she wanted to do, and she begged her to stop, but her daughter didn’t listen. She took a knife out and stabbed the priest in his heart, just before hugging her mother and letting the flames eat them both. The smoke was filling her lungs now and she knew that she was going to die, but it didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered was that her daughter had become one of the fallen. She had spent her whole life trying to help the fallen make peace with themselves, but she didn’t know if she could do the same for her daughter. And if she couldn’t, then everything was going to have been in vain._

_It was only hours later, when the flames had faded and everybody got to their homes that she woke up to her new existence. She could see her daughter’s burnt body being held by her arms, but she wasn’t able to feel anything anymore. So this was what being dead felt like…_

_“I’m sorry that it had to be like this, Cassandra.” She heard a voice and turned around, seeing her husband, the very one who had betrayed her. “But you were getting on my nerves with your ethic lessons so I had to do this to you.”_

_“Who are you?”_

_“Just the devil you know.” The man smiled. “But I can fix this, Cassandra. You don’t have to die. If you die now, you will go to the other side and you’ll never see your daughter again.”_

_“What’s the alternative?”_

_“Stay. Of course, you’ll still go to hell eventually, because well. Let’s just say that a wife must always follow her husband. We can be together again, Cassandra. Just like we’ve always been.”_

_“So this is the deal? I sell my soul to you and you let me here on Earth to search for my daughter?”_

_“If you want to be so blunt about it, then yes. And because we had our nice moments while we were playing house, I’ll give you this. I will only collect your soul the day you give up searching for her.”_

_“Good luck with that, because I’ll never give my daughter up.”_

_“We’ll see about that. After all, you were the one who killed her in the first place. Lucky you have a whole eternity to think about this. I wish you well, Cassandra. Or was it hell?”_ The man asked and then disappeared, his laugh still resonating in Sharon’s mind.

                “I thought I had put that day behind me a long time ago.” Mother Maiden sighed. “I guess I forgot how much it hurt.”

                “So this is why you’re doing what you’re doing? You hope that one day you’ll meet your daughter again?”

                “That used to be the plan, once. After my dear husband left, I was given another choice. The deal I had made with him couldn’t have been broken, but there were some who figured that if I have an eternity I might as well spend it by getting on his nerves. I’ve been reviving the fallen ones for more than 600 years, Sharon. And I hope every time that the next one is going to be my daughter, that I can bring her back and we can be together again. And I am always wrong.”

                “She stopped breathing, Cassandra.” The man interrupted them. “Now if you want to stay and chat, it would be great, but I have other places to be today so yeah. I’m afraid I’ll have to take her.”

                “On what reason?” Katherine asked. “She has saved millions of lives, that has to count for something.”

                “You haven’t taught the kid how it all works, have you? I’ve always been the better parent. The point is, Katherine, she may have saved a lot of people, but she killed many as well. All her friends and colleagues, all the men that had died to protect her, and most important, her daughter. She’s a tasty one, I’ll give her that. And, of course, she could be good for Cassie too, if she agrees working for her, but she won’t.”

                “You don’t know that.”

                “You’re welcome to try, Cassandra, but think about it. I’ve almost took Sinead and she only had one life on her conscience. Think how easy it will be for me to trick this one.”

                “You’re damn right I’ll try.” Mother Maiden said, glaring at him. She took Helen’s hand in her own and soon enough her body was taken over by an electric current. She opened her eyes and froze when she saw Mother Maiden. “Am I dead?” She asked and the old woman nodded. “It’s not as bad as it sounds, Helen. I know you never liked me, but we can work this out. Work for me and it’s going to be fine.”

                “No.” Helen said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but I lived long enough. I had to die sooner or later, and at least I’ll be able to be with my daughter now.”

                “Helen, no. Listen to me, you can’t die.” Nikola pleaded. “I’m sorry for everything. I love you.”

                “It wouldn’t work, Nikola.” Helen smiled. “One bloodsucker in a relationship is enough. And I couldn’t be able to stay by your side anyway. Plus, I miss Ash.”

                “That was easier than I expected.” Victor smiled. “I’m sorry, Cassie, but you lose this time.”

                “Take me.” Mother Maiden said silently. “We both know this is what you’ve really wanted all along. Take me.”

                “Your soul for hers?”

                “My soul for her life. You know how this is done. Death doesn’t really care who dies as long as the balance is kept and I like to think I weigh a bit more than Helen Magnus does.”

                “Would you really give up your daughter for this woman?”

                “Well you were the one who said I’m selfish. Let my final act on this Earth be proving you wrong. Let’s see how bad this Hell you’re talking about really is.”

                “But you can’t do that!” Sharon shouted. “I know I said you have to save her and I don’t pretend I know this much about this whole afterlife thing, but I can’t imagine a world without you. Someone has to do what you’re doing.”

                “Tough luck, I win. But if you come with me, Cassie, you don’t come like this, I’m sorry.” Saying this, he took her hand in his own as he kissed her, and everything about her changed. She got up from her wheelchair, watching the wrinkles on her hands disappearing. Her hair grew again and it was dark and curly as it once used to be.

                “Show off.” she muttered at Victor. “I liked myself better when I was old.”

                “Maybe, but where’s the fun in that. I want a working wife.”

                “Go to Hell.”

                “That’s what I plan on doing, but not alone.” He grinned. “Now, honey, can we go home?”

                “What are we supposed to do now?” Sharon asked, still shocked by Mother Maiden’s new appearance. She was beautiful, her dark hair flowing over the white dress she was wearing, but there was something dark about her. A dark bride that was going to marry Death, and she found herself thinking that it was incredibly fitting.

                “You always knew the answer to that, Sharon. I was the one who refused to see it. Why nothing made sense about you, why you got into my library, even if you were alive, why you kept having all these visions… Don’t you see?”

                “No.”

                “I tried to fight him, Sharon, but I didn’t make it. I think we both know what this means. If I don’t make it…”

                “Someone else will stand my ground.” Sharon whispered. “No. Wait. You can’t possibly be serious.” She said when realization hit her, but Mother Maiden only smiled.


	33. Stairway To The Skies

                “Are you really leaving your job on the hands of a 40 year old girl? Cassie, I know people get dumber when they grow older, but this is… Ah well. Why am I complaining again? This is only going to make things easier for me.”

                “She’s 39.” Mother Maiden grinned. “But that doesn’t count too much.”

                “I hate to be the devil’s advocate here, but I think he has a point. I mean, I’m just a singer. Singers don’t exactly save the world and stuff like that.” Sharon argued. “And I’m sure Katherine would be a lot fitter for the job, if you really want to leave someone behind you.”

                “Katherine has too many issues of her own, Sharon. And I’m not choosing you to replace me. That is way beyond me. But you’ve been chosen for this ever since you were born. This is why you kept having visions, why you got in my library – because it will be your library one day- and most of all, this is why this night when you had the vision about me and my daughter, it felt…”

                “Real.”

                “You’re only able to get into my mind because you’ll be just like me one day, Sharon.”

                “I still don’t know why anybody would think I’m good for this. I never saved anyone in my life, not a single person, and now I am expected to save souls? I mean, at least you had a history of saving people, of guiding them, but me?”

                “You saved much more people than you realize, Sharon.” Mother Maiden smiled. “And trust me, it is hurting my ego to say this a bit, but you are a lot better at saving souls then I am. You see, I am the one who comes after a book was finished and tries to change what can still be changed in the epilogue. You write some of the chapters, and that is something I never was able to do. Do you have any idea how many people you saved from killing themselves, from hurting others? They would have ended up on either my list or Victor’s, but instead of doing something that would have condemned their souls for all eternity, they locked themselves up in their rooms and listened to _The Howling_ on full volume. And alright, maybe they got on some of their neighbors’ nerves by doing that, but you can’t exactly say they’re going to spend their eternity regretting that. You know, there are many who say that your kind of music is violent, that if you listen to it backwards you get satanic incantations and stuff like that. But the truth is, your music has robbed the devil of a lot more souls than anybody realizes. And for this, I’ll be forever grateful to you. I know you don’t think you can do this my way, but maybe it doesn’t have to be my way. I’ve seen you tonight, Sharon. How you’ve’ convinced Nikola and Katherine to stop fighting, without a single drop of blood lost. Maybe this is why I have to go. Because a replacement has been found for me.”

                “Have you finished?” Victor asked coldly. “I still think this is the biggest stupidity I heard in my life, but it’s not my problem anymore. We have to go home, honey.”

                “Our deal first.” Mother Maiden spat at him and he grinned. “Right. We can’t let our good doctor be dead for so long.” Saying this, he placed his hand over Helen’s heart and she fell into a deep sleep. “There, problem solved. She’s going to be alive when she wakes up. Her soul is back, with compliments from death.”

                “Helen!” Nikola screamed and ran to her, taking her in his arms. “You’ll be fine, love, I know that. But you need to sleep now.” He cooed and she smiled as she heard his voice in his sleep.

                “What about your daughter?” Sharon asked.

                “If you see her, tell her her mother loves her and that she wished she hadn’t been forced to give her up. But it’s all for the greater good.”

                “Why don’t you tell me that yourself, mommy?” A young woman said as she appeared in front of them. She was dressed in a white gown that would have left her shoulders bare if it hadn’t been for her dark hair that seemed to flow around her like some sort of aura. She had her mother’s eyes, that was for sure, and when she looked at his father there was nothing but hate in them.

                “Mommy is coming with me, father, I’m sorry.”

                “Jillian.” Victor said coldly. “I wish I could say I’m happy to see you again, but I’d be lying. And I’m sorry but your mother made a deal with me. I’m here to cash in.”

                “After that many centuries and you still haven’t learned how this works, have you?” The young woman laughed at him. “All your deals are broken by acts of sacrifice. That’s what my mother did. She left behind her the only thing that mattered to her in order to save a woman who she’d barely knew. I don’t expect someone like you to understand how much this means, but it doesn’t matter. As you said, you’re not writing the rules here.”

                “You’re in Heaven.” Mother Maiden whispered. “I searched for you so many centuries, thinking that you are a fallen one, and you had moved on all along.”

                “I hate the irony of it too.” Jilian sighed. “But the thing is, mother, I had no reason to be a fallen one. Yes, I killed that priest, but I only did it to save you. And he’d been a friend of daddy’s for too long for somebody to miss him. So you see, I had no reason to regret anything. That’s why I was able to move on, and this is why you’re allowed to move on as well now.”

                “Fine. You can take her if you’d like.” Victor snapped at them. “You think I care? You’ll still be dead and gone and the kid you left in your place clearly doesn’t know anything about saving souls, so it’s going to be a good eternity for me it seems.”

                “Allow me to disagree on that, Victor.”

                “Please, Cassandra. Maybe you think you can convince her with your little propaganda, but I can still see in her soul. She’s too young to fight me, not to mention she knows nothing about defeating me. And even if she did, your idea of ending the bloodshed… What happens when your pets get hungry, Cassandra? She sings to them?”

                “Maybe I don’t know much about you, Victor or whatever your name is. But you know what? I know that you feed on fear, that you grow strong on people’s displeasure. And I hate to blow your bubble, but nobody is afraid of you now. You know why? Because we have hope, and that is something you won’t ever be able to understand. We are stronger than you think. And maybe the future isn’t looking so bright to us, but I know that you are only strong as long as people believe what you tell them. And right now, nobody gives a damn about what you’re trying to convince us. You have no power here. Ah, yes, I know there is going to be a day when this will change, but when that happens, I’ll be there. And I won’t be alone.”

                “Big words for somebody so small, Sharon.” Victor laughed. “You are brave now, but we’ll see what happens when I’ll be really targeting you. I’ll let you have your little victory now, still. Makes things more interesting this way. And if this is your idea of paradise… You’d better reconsider it.”

                “Of course it’s not. But it’s all that I’m fighting for. I’ll see you around.”

                “You can bet on that, kiddo. I’ll love taking your soul.” Victor said, giving her a sarcastic bow before disappearing into thin air.

                “I honestly don’t know where that came from.” Sharon smiled. “I never knew I had it in me.”

                “I can write a very long list of things you didn’t know, Sharon, but it appears that Heaven is waiting for me.” Mother Maiden told her as she took her face in her hands. “This look… I used to have it too, one day.” She sighed. “So beautiful and so full of hope. You’re going to be brilliant.”

                “I still doubt it, for the record.”

                “If you worry about carrying on a double life before you die, don’t. You’ll figure it out. Katherine is apparently still not leaving, so she’ll help you.”

                “Leave? Now, when I found a kid that needs my help? Please. You know I like this too much to give it up. Heaven is not my thing. Never was, never will be.” Katherine smiled at her. “But oh well, you can send me a postcard now and then I guess.”

                “Count on that. Now, Jillian, show your mother the way.” Mother Maiden said as she took her daughter’s hand in her own and they both disappeared into thin air.

                “What the bloody hell just happened?” Helen asked as she woke up. Her neck still hurt and she had just dreamt a crazy dream about Mother Maiden wanting to bring her back to life and…

                “Shhh. You’re here with me now.” Nikola smiled at her. “It’s a very long story.”

                “Is it?” Her eyes found Sharon’s who couldn’t help smiling at her. “You know, irony is, you were right. Just missed it by a few days.”

                “What?”

                “Mother Maiden resigned, in a way.” Katherine said. “But I’ll let Sharon fill you in on the details. It’s been a long day and there are things I have to do before returning. Hey, don’t look at me like that, you’ve seen the library for yourself. It definitely needs some cleaning.” She laughed and then disappeared.

                “Can someone please explain me what this was all about?” Helen asked, still not getting anything.

                “Basically, the gothic hottie just saved us all.” Nikola answered. “I hope you won’t take my soul or something for calling you like that.”

                “I don’t even know how to do that. But you could let me explain, that is, if Helen promises she won’t tell Henry anything about it. He’s fangirling enough about me as it is, no need for him to know about recent events.”

                “I’m going to have to sit down for this, aren’t I?” Helen asked and everybody smiled at her.

* * *

 

                “Doc, you have to see this!” Henry said as he stormed into Helen’s office. He threw a newspaper on her desk, his eyes watching her accusingly. “I’m guessing you have a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.” He said coldly.

                “What now?” Helen asked tired. It had been a few days since Sharon had left the Sanctuary, but she was still tired after everything that had happened. There were still so many things that had made no sense, but she hoped she would get to the bottom of them soon. So, when she saw the headline, she couldn’t help a small smile. The article was about a girl that had tried to kill herself. She had taken pills and was about to die when she heard a song playing in her head and then everything went dark. She had woken up hours later in a hospital and the doctors had told her that she had changed her mind in the last second and called the ambulance. That was what had saved her. But what had really got the press attention was the interview she gave afterwards. She claimed that when she got home, she decided to open a gift her friend had given to her a few days before. The gift proved to be a song album, and when she listened to the first song on it, she discovered that it was the very song that had played in her mind the night she wanted to kill herself.

                “I’m waiting.” Henry said, his eyes never leaving her, and she tried to act as innocent as she could.

                “Well, you know what they say. If someone has to take a stand against evil, why should it not be her?”

                “Me. It’s _me_ , Doc.”

                “That’s what I said.” Helen said with a giggle. “Now don’t you have a report to write or something?”

                “What? You mean she- but how- and-. You’re not going to tell me anything, are you? I hate you. For the record, I hate you.” Henry muttered and then he left, finally giving her the chance to burst in laughter. There was a part of her that wished she could tell him the truth, that almost felt sorry for him… _Almost._


End file.
